Sisters in Arms
by HecateA
Summary: A story of strangers and sisters and the thin line between the two, written in the point of view of two Amazons. Oneshot.
1. In which Kinzie Scores Big

**Hi! So I am very proud of this mega-piece and it took me forever to write and forever to edit. I'm warning you: it's 74 pages long in Microsoft Word, so make sure that you really want this. Also there is a T rating on this for three reasons- language, violence and gore, and mentions to adult topics such as rape. So if that's a trigger for you, or if you're uncomfortable with a mention to this particular subject, please find something else to read.**

**Also something fantastic happened while I posted the story: the text got printed twice? So the story was doubly as long. And then someone said that even then, the story should have been split into chapters and so I said 'okay, fair enough'. I had four reviews on it, so I just decided to post all of the story's content, but to seperate it at specific places so that you could choose to take a break while you read or whatnot. So thanks to the first four people who read the reviewed the story for the suggestions and tips. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Hylla or Kinzie.**

**Dedication: to my four sisters in arm against the world of normality. it's nice to know that there's someone who'd kill a man for you.**

* * *

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

Hylla was shouldered by two Amazons as she stood by the door and watched her little sister walk away. She was completely alone, armed with a dagger and equipped with a backpack against a world she didn't know. This was going against Hylla's every instinct- letting her sister go off like that. It was against every single thing Hylla had ever done to keep Reyna safe and fed and sheltered, no matter how drastic or hard the price.

But she'd gotten angry. In her anger she'd realised that Reyna wasn't five years old and orphaned anymore, and Hylla was no longer the only means that Reyna had to take care of herself. That was still true, even when she wasn't angry but rather sad and maybe a little broken.

"Well, now that that's taken care of," the tallest woman Hylla had ever seen- Queen Asha- said. "I'm sure that we can get you cleaned up before your schedule starts."

"Schedule?" Hylla asked turning away from the glass doors.

"Yes," the Queen said. "Amazons live in a community powered by ourselves. Nobody is spared from work. The schedules are, in fact, very well structured. You can be buddied up with Kinzie for as long as you'll need to until you fall into the routine and start knowing the campus better. She's in the barracks too. Abby, do go get her so that proper introductions can be made."

"Yes, Ma'am." One of the Amazons said before walking off.

* * *

Kinzie was skin on bones, with auburn hair and slim brown eyes. Her face had a pretty, ageless quality- like the nymphs that Hylla had met so far.

"Hi," she said. Her smile was nervous. Everything about her was nervous and jittery. Her hands were pulling on the zippers of her jacket's pockets or the strings of the hoody she wore under it or her hair or the fabric of her pockets… Hylla couldn't completely tear her attention away from the ever moving hands or the darting of her eyes. It annoyed her.

"I'm Kinzie Caden, it's great to meet you."

"Hylla Castillo," she said.

"Welcome to the kingdom," she said with a shy and nervous but overall well-meaning smile. "I have your schedule, here's a copy."

She handed Hylla a slip of paper that she looked over.

"There are specific meal times," Kinzie said, "At least one designated training block a day, and four hours of work at the most. Other than that you can pretty much go anywhere on campus. Like right now, see how the slot there is blank?"

"Okay," Hylla said. She got up and left before Kinzie could even think of following.

* * *

_Shoot,_ Kinzie thought as she watched this tall and mean looking girl walk away.

Less than thirty seconds after they'd been left alone, and she'd lost her ward! No wonder this was her only job.

* * *

"The sleeping quarters aren't as complicated as they sound," Kinzie said fluffing out her pillow. "The rule of thumb is that the newer you are, the less privacy and space you get. It goes from barracks –like we are in now, to small dorm rooms, to semi-private rooms, and then to private rooms."

Hylla nodded, uninterested.

Kinzie pushed back her blankets. "Oh, a lot of people think that the covers are a lot softer than they're used to, so they have trouble sleeping. My advice? Go get a towel and wrap up in it before."

"I'll be fine," Hylla said.

"Lights out," a mechanical voice said resonating around the room.

"Good night," Kinzie said kindly.

Hylla wasn't raised in a barn and so even sure she wasn't 100% certain about this girl yet, she wished her goodnight.

* * *

Roll call came so fast and Kinzie had completely forgotten about it (which was stupid since she'd been in the Kingdom for ten years and should know that it came twice a day). She'd barely had time to drag Hylla in place before it started- much less explain everything to her.

Hylla looked at everyone around her and folded her hands behind her back, pressing them against her spine right where it curved inwards. She was adaptable and observant, Kinzie liked that.

Well, this was her mess so she could risk movement to explain to her at least _why _they were standing like that.

Kinzie leaned inwards. "It's a symbol of trust," she whispered. "Your hands are behind your back. You could be holding a weapon. But your Queen trusts that you are not."

And even though they were meant to be still, even though they were meant not to respond to any distraction during roll call- Hylla gave a tiny, nearly unseen, nod of her head.

And for the first time Kinzie thought that maybe someone appreciated her work as official go-to tour guide.

* * *

"Kinzie!" Someone called as she was about to dig into breakfast. "Oh- thank _gods _I found you! I totally need someone to change a shift with, I mean, it'd be _totally _disastrous if not you have _no idea…"_

It was Nat who'd rushed up to her. She had sky blue eyes and her hair was done in old-fashioned curls.

"I would," Kinzie said. "But I'm with a newbie. You'd need to find someone to switch her shift with- if Hylla wants to, of course."

Hylla wasn't saying anything; she was just looking at them with the typical killer and unwavering attention in her eyes.

"I'll go find Faith, gods I hope she says yes because I so _totally _would have been screwed," Nat moaned before darting off.

"That was Nat by the way," Kinzie explained.

"What was her fuss about?"

"Oh, there's a huge schedule exchange business." Kinzie said thrilled to be answering a question. "Switching slots and meal times and things to fit your schedule. Nat must've bumped into a schedule conflict- she travels so much, she's the worst at that. Anyways, you and I have to stick together so I can't just trade- oh, there she is."

Nat had come back with Faith- a girl with honey blond hair cut to her neck and young, twinkling sky blue eyes.

"Here you go," Nat said breathlessly. "Oh my gods I _totally _owe you Kinzie."

"Not that you didn't already owe her for a million other things," Faith said. "Oh look, a newbie."

Hylla's nose wrinkled.

"I'm Faith," she said holding out her hand. "What about you?"

"Hylla," she said shaking on it.

"Nice to meet you," Faith smiled.

"Newbie?" Nat said, now snapped out of her panic and ready to register things. "Really now? Oh…"

She smiled and Kinzie's heart dropped.

"Guys…" She said.

"Do the Sisters know, yet?" Nat asked.

"No," Kinzie said. She'd been hoping to keep it that way to at least give Hylla some time to breathe.

"Who are the sisters?" Hylla asked.

"Two Amazons," Faith said. "They're sisters, duh, and they're in semi-private room rank."

Kinzie's internal instincts were yelling out the real rank name. _The Honest._

"They've been in there for about ten years. See, they don't move up because they are total and complete troublemakers but they don't get bumped down because they're awesome Amazons," Kinzie said. "The Queen considered them for her Court not too long ago, actually."

"Why would I want to be in rank with troublemakers," Hylla said. "Honestly, I get into enough of that on my own."

That was the most Kinzie had ever heard Hylla say about her past. Most of what she knew was from the guards who'd brought her on campus, or the Queen herself. Something about a position at Circe's Academy of Magic was the only consistent thing Kinzie heard.

Nat and Faith smiled.

* * *

Fingers closed around the edge of Hylla's plate at the next meal and pulled it away from her. Two girls sat on the table, one on each side of her, making Kinzie scooch over.

"So you're Hylla?" One said. They were clearly twins- with fiery red hair much lighter than Kinzie's hair, that trailed down their backs like flames, and eyes that were so light, Hylla wasn't sure there was a colour that could fit there. She tried finding a difference between the two, but it didn't come.

"Yes." She said carefully. "Can I have my food back?"

"Yeah, in a minute," one said. Hylla wasn't thrilled. It had been two days since she'd stopped being on a run and had a nice little schedule to tell and promise her of when her next meal was, but she still felt oddly protective of food and just about anything that was hers.

"See, I'm Alex."

"I'm Alec. We heard that you are new."

"Yes I am, now may I please have my food back?"

"That wasn't a minute," Alex said.

Hylla felt like stabbing her in the thigh with her fork.

"Anyways," Alec said. "We have a bit of an initiation rite for newbies."

"Fascinating," Hylla said. Being cold and clean-cut could sometimes worked when it came to getting people off your case. Not these two girls. They were way too overexcited about whatever they were currently fixated on.

"I'm sure you'll think so," Alex said crossing one leg on top of the other. "See, the wiser option is to follow us in the middle of the night and go through with it."

"Or what?" Hylla asked.

"Or risk mysteriously never going into a stall or bathroom with toilet paper for the rest of your life," Alec said.

"I'll risk it," Hylla said. "My plate?"

"We tried," Alex said.

"Yeah. Some people are just scared of the unknown," Alec said with a fake sigh.

Hylla's back straightened. Cold fury raced through her.

"Scared? I am _not _scared."

"Cool, meet us by that fountain with the live starfish in it by midnight," Alex said. The twins leapt away.

Kinzie slid back next to her, leaned across the table and pulled the plate back towards Hylla. A few people at the table looked interested, as if the Sister's announcement was a big deal.

"The Sisters can be overwhelming- they always talked one after the other and stuff," Kinzie said. It was as if she flipped to a random page in The Big Encyclopedia of All Things Amazon and was now reading out an entry. "But you should never for the life of you assume that anything they say can't be done because they _totally _would have done the toilet-paper thing to you."

"I didn't agree for the toilet paper," Hylla said harshly before digging back into her food.

* * *

Kinzie heard Hylla stir in the middle of the night. Of course, she didn't make a noise. Hylla never made a sound that would give away her presence to anyone or anything- she was like a jungle cat that way (and in a few others). But Kinzie was used to hearing newbies run off to the fountain with the starfish, and so she heard.

She got up too.

Hylla looked up.

"What are you going?" She asked in a whisper. The whisper was familiar and easy, like she was used to having to talk without anybody hearing or noticing.

"I'm not letting you go to the Sisters alone," she answered. She'd slept in her black Amazon clothes and everything. So had Hylla apparently- she was just lacing up her boots.

"I'm fine on my own."

"Yeah right, no you're not. You don't even know what you're getting yourself into," Kinzie said.

"And you do?"

"Of course I do, I've done this before."

Hylla froze and looked her over. "Then what is it?"

"I can't tell you."

"Awful lot of good you are," Hylla said getting up. She tied a dagger to her belt and ran off. Kinzie scrambled after her, pretending that that comment hadn't hurt at all. Hylla didn't say a word. She nearly got lost, but Kinzie helped her get to the fountain on time.

Alex and Alec were already there with a small crowd –including Faith, Nat and Daisy. Alex was holding a starfish only centimeters from Alec's mouth, but they snapped out of it when Hylla showed up.

"Good evening," Alex said. Kinzie always got heart attacks at this part. Alex talked way too loudly for someone sneaking out with a crowd late at night. But of course she was a daughter of Mercury and had instincts for this- plus she'd probably pulled some strings so that the guards would all be looking the other way for a while.

"Sleep well?" Alec asked.

"Hope you're awake now."

"Yes, follow us."

They led them down a hallway and then shooed everyone down one door, and took Hylla down another.

Kinzie let herself get bumped along the catwalk by the crowd. Hylla and the Twins stood on one that stood a few feet away.

"Make the jump to the rest of the Amazon's and you're good to go," Alex said.

"Simple as ABC," Alec shrugged. "Anytime you're ready."

"That's it? This is your big initiation?" Hylla asked.

A shiver went through the crowd.

"That's funny," Alex said. "A lot of people say that."

"Yeah. A lot of people also think they can jump before they try."

"Then they have to lick a starfish as second initiation," Alex said.

"I've tried this before," Hylla said. She tossed her head and her hair flew out of her face. "Actually I've _succeeded _at this before."

"Well then be my guest," Alec said gesturing towards the catwalk. Everyone else was on the other side, waiting excitedly.

"Do I get a running start?"

"You know what, you were pretty rude to me and I like being the rudest person in a room," Alex said. "So I'm going to go with 'no'."

Hylla shrugged.

She positioned herself with the ease of a pro. She balanced her weight around her feet and mimicked jumping a few times.

Then she jumped and Kinzie caught her breath because she was _so _sure that Hylla wasn't going to make it.

But she did- even without a running start! Kinzie started breathing again; holding her breath was a bad habit of hers whenever she got nervous or scared about something.

Hylla landed on the cat walk, crouched and poised like a cat. No muscle moved without Hylla's express command or wish. None of her movements were random, everything was perfectly controlled; Kinzie could tell and was –frankly- amazed.

Hylla straightened herself up just as a symbol started burning over her head. A sword and a torch crossed over each other like the X on a pirate map. It was consumed by heavy fire only seconds after its apparition, as if it didn't consider itself to be a messenger of big news.

Whispers broke through the crowd that had been cheering, but the cheering didn't stop for very long.

"Good job," Kinzie said weakly. Hylla looked up and smiled at her for a split second, before looking another way.

Alec and Alex detoured through another catwalk before coming down, and they were armed with snacks and big bottles of soda.

It was a celebration afterwards. After checking out the newbies, the food was the second reason why people came to these initiations. Drinking pop from the bottle, exotic fruit skewers, bags of chips and popcorn, chocolate shapes… The Sisters had some pretty important strings in the kitchens, and they weren't shy about pulling them.

Finally things quieted down a bit once Alex announced that their guard-free hallway guarantee would expire in ten minutes so maybe they'd want to leave.

Hylla stuck around with the Sisters, who congratulated her, winked, and promised to see her around before leaving, and Nat and the others.

"You're a daughter of _Bellona?" _Nat asked. "Gods, I had no idea! Well, I guess nobody did since you just got claimed… Geez, Hylla congrats- it took me _ages _to get claimed."

Claimed by Mercury, that was. Nat may seem flimsy with all the qualities of an airhead, but she had a passion for travel and culture and languages. She spoke several herself. Sometimes Kinzie felt bad that Nat was stuck on campus all the time, instead of backpacking the world like other college-aged young adults.

"Maybe we should sneak into the kitchens next and get some cake," Faith said with a grin. "The Sisters never bring cake and nothing says _let's celebrate _like cake. And even if something else did, it wouldn't matter because cake."

"With that big order they just got? The kitchen's probably on the verge of explosion right now- plus they'd kill us if we bothered. You know how Madam Maisie gets." Daisy said.

"Maybe we should just go to bed, you know? Not get totally in trouble or even risk it." Nat said.

And so they parted- Nat, Faith and Daisy to the senior dorm rooms, Kinzie and Hylla to the newbie barracks. Kinzie dragged Hylla to a passage that was never so much as patrolled at night, just to make sure that initiation night didn't turn into first-forced-drill night.

"You didn't look very surprised when Bellona claimed you," Kinzie said. "I could tell. You knew, right?"

"Yes," Hylla said. "I… I've spoken to her once. My father used her real name."

"You knew your father?" Kinzie said. "Sorry if I'm sounding ditzy, it's just that a ton of Amazons don't, it's not uncommon, and I wasn't sure if you were born from Amazon blood or not."

"I did. He died a long time ago. Did you?" Hylla asked.

Kinzie didn't know what to answer so she stretched and bit her lips, as per usual.

"Sorry. That was insensitive."

"No, not really. It's just that it's not custom for the children of Amazons to know their dads. We're supposed to hate all men, and meeting one that's as close to us as a father might be in a perfect world... ruins the purity of our thoughts, you know?"

"You were the child of an Amazon?" Hylla asked. "That's cool."

"Yeah," Kinzie said with fake and strained enthusiasm.

"Who is your mom? Well, she's probably too high up for me to know her."

"Oh no, you know her," Kinzie said scratching the back of her neck nervously. "She's the Queen…"

Hylla's eyes didn't even widen, like most did. She just nodded. "You have the same eyes. I should have guessed. So you've lived here all your life?" Hylla asked.

Just like that the conversation shifted. No _wow, you're like the princess!_ or_ that's so cool I wish my mom had been that way. _Just acknowledgement. Then again, Hylla hadn't been too keen to talk about Bellona herself...

"Yup. And I'll probably live here my whole life," Kinzie said. She tried not to accompany that with a sigh, but Hylla seemed perspicacious enough to guess.

"It's a pretty cool place," Hylla said. "I've stayed in worse."

"Like the spa?"

Hylla's face darkened. "Not really. At the time I was there, it was right. I don't think I'd go back, knowing what I know and having the values I hold now, but it was okay. I meant sewers and foster homes and crack houses more than anything."

"What the hell were you doing in any of those places?" Kinzie asked.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"I object," she said. "I've heard the stories of nearly everyone who's come to the kingdom in the recent years. You try me, Hylla."

Hylla cracked her first smile. "It'll take a while."

"I know a place where the guards don't go, and all you need to do to get there is jump from a catwalk and climb a bit. _And _the view's great." Kinzie said. "We can have 'a while'."

* * *

Hylla had gotten a few days without training just to heal some of the injuries she'd come to the Amazon kingdom with, but now that was long gone.

Kinzie both loved and hated the training room. She was physically weak- she wasn't a good fighter despite years of practise and it was impossible for her to gain weight or muscle. Her stupid metabolism must come from her father in that case.

But she loved seeing the only place where Amazons wore colours other than black. Hylla herself was wearing a grey shirt- company standard- until she got around to getting her own things. Kinzie would never wear black in here.

"Where'd you wanna start?" Kinzie asked.

"What's your favourite?" Hylla asked looking around at the machines.

"I don't have one," Kinzie said. "I suck at them all equally."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Oh, it is. I am the only physically unfit Amazon in the history of the kingdom."

"That can't be real, I bet you're just beating yourself up." Hylla said.

She'd see. Kinzie didn't argue furthermore, she just showed Hylla the map.

There were all the different sports complexes around, and little red lights shone in each picture. It lit up red if nothing was going on, yellow if activities were going to be held shortly, and green if things were going on. She told Hylla to pick a place on the map. Basketball courts, gymnastics, parkour (which Hylla seemed excellent at by the looks of last night), track and field course, soccer fields, touch football, lacrosse, wrestling, the dojo…

"What's that?" Hylla asked pointing to a spot on the map.

"H2H," Kinzie said. "You put your name on a piece of paper, they throw it in a hat and make pairs for fights as they go."

"Light's yellow," Hylla said looking at Kinzie.

She shifted uncomfortably. "We can go," she offered anyways.

"No," Hylla said. "You clearly don't want to. Seriously, there must be something you like…"

"H2H is fine," Kinzie said. "I want to see you fight."

Hylla smiled. Clearly that was her biggest point of interest on the map.

"Let's go," Kinzie said.

The floor of the H2H room was padded with wrestling mats, and there were weapons hanging on the walls, though most people brought their own. Hylla had a dagger at her waist. When she signed up the attending Amazon asked if she wanted something else, but Hylla said no.

She wrinkled her nose. "Are you sure? Daggers aren't easy to…"

"She's sure, Olivia." Kinzie said. Olivia backed off and put Hylla's slip of paper in the hat.

Kinzie put her hand on Hylla's arm and walked her to the edge of the mat. A few people were already lounging there- lacing up boots, redoing the leather grips on the hilts of their weapons, tying up their hair, coating their hands in white powder that would give them better grip.

Hylla just sat down and looked at the mat.

"How good is the grip on the mats?" She asked.

Kinzie glanced at her shoes. "You'll be alright."

"Hey sport," someone said. Kinzie got a squirt of freezing water in the back of her head, and it dripped down her shirt.

She turned around and her nose crinkled. Lulu Marceau, probably one of the people that Kinzie liked the least in the entire Kingdom. She was built like a brick, with all the muscle and technique to lift two hundred of those at the same time. To Kinzie, Lulu looked like a brute but that was probably just because she'd seen her personality.

"Was that necessary?" Kinzie asked using her sleeve to wipe the back of her head.

Lulu's backup, Doris, laughed. That was all she was good at. Laughing like a monkey on drugs whenever Lulu did something that showed a however remote ability to think.

"I think so," Lulu grinned. "I hope I get your name. Although at the same time, I like it when I fight someone who at least has a chance."

"Watch it," Hylla said suddenly getting to her feet. She was about Lulu's height.

"Wow Kinzie, your newest pet can talk," Lulu said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Hylla." She said coldly. "And I am nobody's pet."

Kinzie got up too. Her heart was pounding. Lulu was aggressive and fiery- and Kinzie may not be great help if a fight started, but she could perhaps distract Doris...

"Oh, you're Mrs. Bigshot from the sister's stupid test," Doris said. The shock of hearing her talk nearly killed Kinzie.

"Yeah. What's wrong, did you trip when you tried?" Hylla asked. Kinzie had to choke back a laugh. Doris hadn't even done it. The only reason anyone had any kind of respect for her was because Lulu dragged her around, and Lulu was the only first year to ever have been in the running for replacing a guard in the Queen's Court.

"Now it's your turn to watch it, newbie." Lulu said defensively.

"Well since we're both clearly irritating each other, maybe you should both run along." Hylla said. More people were looking at them, in shock at Hylla's calm and placid tone, in shock at the fact she was even replying to Lulu…

"Maybe you should sleep with one eye open," Lulu said in a stickily sweet tone before walking away, Doris in tow.

Hylla sat down again and started picking at her dagger, scrapping off bits of dried blood and dirt.

Kinzie dropped to her knees next to her, heart beating like a drum.

"Hylla, you don't understand who Lulu possibly is…"

"She's an Amazon who thinks she's at the top of the world and who was picking on you," Hylla said. "That's all I need to know."

Kinzie's heartbeat relaxed, not to mention that she felt a bit touched.

There must be a room full of switches on Olympus, or down where the fates operated. And every now and then someone would wander down in there and flick a switch. A person's eyes would suddenly look brighter, her smile would look more familiar, conversations with her would come easier and suddenly you knew how to make them laugh. Or at least that's what it'd been like for Kinzie and Hylla.

Before she could say anything an alarm blazed through the room and an Amazon with the gold stripes of a referee on her shoulders stepped onto the mat with a list of names. She was an Honourable - the highest rank of Amazon underneath the Queen's Court- named Diane, daughter of Nike.

The matches were starting.

They watched a few fights –all of them good. The referee gave points according to technique, amount of blows, diversity of style and dignity. The more you screamed, the more you lost points.

Hylla was grinning and she reacted like the rest of the crowds. The only difference was the precision in her eyes as she watched. Kinzie couldn't help but feel like she was watching a supercomputer program running, storing information into some big database.

Anaïs finally pinned Morgan, they shook hands as per tradition, and walked off the mat. The ref walked onto the mat with her list of names.

"Hylla Castillo," she called in her deep, bellowing voice. People clapped as Hylla got up. Kinzie squeezed her hand and Hylla looked down and smiled at her. She had a soft, very nice and even comforting smile.

"And Lulu Marceau," she called again.

Kinzie felt like her whole body went limp. She felt Hylla's hands in hers stiffen. Kinzie gave it another squeeze.

"You'll rock," she said softly as people clapped. There were whispers through the crowd. _Wow- a Newcomer against an Honest, that's too big a difference in ranks to be a fair fight._

Hylla walked onto the mat where Lulu already stood, grinning as if laurels were resting on her head.

Hylla held out her hand- which sometimes happened before these fights but wasn't regulation. Lulu didn't shake it, and Kinzie filled up with bitterness thinking _how rude_. She probably wouldn't be making a big deal out of it if it wasn't Hylla out there.

Both girls were poised and starring at each other with glares as sharp as the weapons in their hands.

"So, daughter of Bellona so I hear," Lulu said. "Basically a cheap and modern rip-off of Mars, that goddess."

People drew breaths.

"I assume you're a daughter of Mars," Hylla said.

"Oooh, very good. For the daughter of a _modern god_." Lulu said. "That's what your mother is, you know. One of those. She showed up in the world alright, but she will never be as powerful as the others. She will never be recognised."

"A daughter of Bellona has everything that she needs to fight, and a daughter of Mars has everything she needs to talk." Hylla replied stoically. Kinzie recognised the insult and rage in her eyes.

"That's cute. That's really cute."

"Like your name," Hylla said.

The crowd hissed. The referee suddenly looked like a tennis ref, her eyes bouncing from one adversary to the other.

"I will split your lips for that."

"I look forwards to your trying." Hylla said.

Finally the ref had enough and she blew her whistle.

The referee made eye contact with both girls. Lulu had a sword, Hylla had a dagger.

"One," she counted. "Two…"

Lulu swung her blade right away, drawing a big '_BOOO' _from the crowd.

Hylla didn't let herself get surprised, she caught the hilt on her dagger and with a wide swing of her arm made it fly away. Lulu actually tripped, and Hylla was right on her. The referee didn't even blow her whistle to call a penalty because of how well Hylla had turned that around.

Lulu was just as quick, and she lunged towards Hylla's legs while she was coming. Hylla kicked off her shoulder and backed up. Lulu was back up, and with an excellent feint she got Hylla right across the shoulder, ripping the sleeve of her t-shirt. It was her sword arm, and Kinzie started to panic.

Hylla stayed cool and collected. She rolled backwards away from Lulu and got to her feet in a good stance just as Lulu came charging back. During that split second that her foot wasn't on the ground, Hylla dove like a baseball player and managed to kick Lulu's feet from underneath her. She landed face-first on the mattress.

The crowd was ecstatic.

Hylla wasn't on her feet when she jumped on top of Lulu, dagger back at her belt. Lulu had fallen with her sword, and Hylla smashed her hand with her elbow to make her drop it.

She had Lulu locked in some kind of wrestling move. Her long limbs made her impossible to displace, but Lulu was trying. Hylla actually had to try three different moves and nearly got pinned herself before she had Lulu's shoulder blades to the ground.

The ref fell to the ground and raised her fingers to count.

1...

2…

3…

She whistled and Hylla released Lulu whose limp arms collapsed on the mat. She got up, collected her dagger. She swung around and offered her hand to Lulu, who was sitting up.

"I'll offer you another piece of advice," Hylla said. "Never insult someone just before a fight."

Lulu ignored Hylla's hand and stood up. Never in recent memory had someone else but Lulu's arm get raised in victory during one of her fights. People were cheering and laughing at the pure hilarity of the situation. Kinzie was on her feet clapping.

"That was amazing!" Kinzie said.

Hylla grinned. Her shoulder was bleeding a little more than expected. They'd have to drop by the infirmary. One of her teeth was bleeding- it looked loose.

"Your tooth…"

"Yeah, I know, she punched me." Hylla said. "I opened my mouth."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

"Couldn't let her split my lip," she said.

That was the day that Hylla and Kinzie became one side of a war against Lulu and Doris.

Also that was the day that Kinzie realised how truly terrifying her new friend was. If Kinzie would ever have gotten scared away from Hylla, it would have been today.

But she didn't run. And so it looked like they were going to be stuck together (or at least her heart fluttered excitedly at the thought) for a while.


	2. In which A Nickname is Given

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

They were displaying books on a table that a dignitary from an important foreign branch of Amazons of some kind would be shown to. Kinzie had told her that her money was on New Zealand - which was apparently the first country to let women vote specifically because of the big Amazon movement there.

Kinzie was picking up books, reading the titles and dramatically reading out parts of it- which were especially funny for how-to and self-help books. She'd told Hylla that she'd spent most of her life reading the books that were in stock and writing reviews for them online. The only book she didn't read out loud was _Peter Pan. _She opened that one at a specific page, as if she knew it by heart, read a scene and put it back down_._

"Ooh, The Modern Etymology Dictionary," Kinzie said. "Amazon version- no boy names and the introduction by the male was changed to one by a female. Nice. Let's find your name."

"It probably won't be in it," Hylla said.

Kinzie looked anyways and came up empty-handed, as she'd expected her to.

"I've never met _anyone _with my name," Hylla said unpacking another box.

"Geez, it must such when you walk into a souvenir shop," Kinzie said. "I'll find you a mug with your name on it one day, don't worry."

Hylla laughed. "I appreciate it. Speaking of which, I've never met a Kinzie before. Granted I'm not a social butterfly…"

"It's not a name. Not even mine," she said.

"Come again?"

"Kinzie isn't my name," she said. "It's short for Mackenzie."

"Mackenzie's a really pretty name. What made you shorten it?" Hylla asked. Immediately she knew that she had wandered into a touchy subject, as if she'd stepped on a frozen pond and had heard thin ice crack underneath her feet.

"I guess I was twelve when I realised that I was walking around bearing a name chosen from me by someone who didn't pay much attention to me. But at the same time I didn't want to change it because…"

Hylla nodded. "Your mother chose it for you and you can't _completely _forget about her."

Kinzie nodded. "You're the first person who legitimately understands that."

"Well, when I met my mom she was holding an M-16 and talking in military speak- I couldn't get a word in, and she didn't get a single one across. War gods aren't exactly great parenting material."

"I suppose not. Anyways, I went half and half and people started calling me Kinzie."

"I didn't know," Hylla said. "Kinz?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I call you Mack?" Hylla asked.

Kinzie laughed.

"Sure." It seemed like an afterthought when she added, "I've never had a personal nickname before. Something that just one person in the world called me. Well, unless _Mackenzie Elizabeth Caden _in a screeching voice suspiciously like my mother's counts."

Hylla laughed. "No, Mack's your first. Don't steal my glory."

* * *

Kinzie and Hylla were on guard duty on a very uneventful floor.

"This is boring," Hylla finally decreed.

"You're a Newcomer. That low in the ranks, they don't let you do anything interesting."

"When do interesting things start?" She asked.

"Cacula," Kinzie said. "That's the first rank in the dorms- like Daisy and them."

"Are you telling me that right now they're on some kind of secret mission while we guard the dust bunnies?" Hylla asked.

"Maybe," Kinzie said. "But I doubt it. The Queen chooses who goes on various missions from all the ranks of course, but usually you'd need to be an Vigil or an Honourable- those are the two highest levels under the Queen and her Court."

Hylla didn't say anything for a while.

"Kinzie, how the hell are you still considered a Newcomer?"

"I'm not. I'm Inaudite. That's a step up."

"Okay, but how are you still in the barracks? You told me that you were here before Faith or Daisy, and that you moved into the barracks before The Sisters even got here."

Kinzie fidgeted with the sleeves of her leather jacket. It looked tough, but it was really the only strong thing about her.

"The Queen likes to keep me close to the Newcomers. My skills as Tour Guide are a perfected art."

"Well I know that. I see your face light up whenever you answer a question. But still, you should be at least in a Dorm right now." Hylla said. "It only seems fair."

Kinzie shrugged. "It is the Queen's wish."

"Is it yours?"

"No," Kinzie said very quietly. Having grown up in the Kingdom, she knew that the Queen's influence was everywhere though most Amazons didn't see it. And on her daughter? Absolutely. People rallied information to Queen Asha about Kinzie's life, about what Kinzie was doing, about where Kinzie was… It was a mess sometimes. People like Lulu and Doris _loved _playing messenger pigeon for the Queen. Sometimes she felt like she couldn't say a single word without the Queen hearing every tonality of every syllable.

But with Hylla around she found herself spilling all the beans.

"I get tired of watching people go up in ranks while I stay on the down-low. I mean, I've been doing this since I'm twelve. Being static after twelve years? Not fun. And I'm lucky that Daisy, Faith and Nat even talk to me anymore. Tons of people hang out with me in the barracks, and pretend they never knew me when they moved up a rank."

"That's low," Hylla said.

"Not really. It's a game of classes sometimes. Why would you talk to an Inaudite when you're a Fidus or whatever?"

"Because the Inaudite in question is freaking awesome," Hylla said.

Kinzie sighed.

"You know what the worst part is?" Kinzie asked. "For a lot of people here, it's different. Like you- you chose to be here. I was just born here, and here I am and here I'll die and will I have done anything good for the Kingdom? For the world? I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I was born at the wrong place."

She sighed.

"You know," Hylla said, "Even if I chose this place sometimes I'm not sure I chose the right place. You never know- nobody ever knows."

"Well at least you get to blame it on yourself, right?" Kinzie said.

"Guess so," Hylla said. "But I think you should tell Queen Asha."

"You can't beg to move up a rank," Kinzie said.

"No, but you can make a reasonable plea can't you?"

"My mother would kill me," Kinzie said.

"She'd kill me too," Hylla said. "After all, if you ever have to tell her… well, I'll be right with you."

* * *

It was mid-December by the time it snowed.

Of course, it didn't snow much in Seattle- maybe two inches a year. But that was enough to get people nuts and sledding and shivering. Hylla, having lived in tropical islands her whole life, was completely drawn back and fascinated by it and Kinzie made it her obligation to be the first person to throw a snowball in the back of her head. She accidentally started a snow fight in the campus' mall but the bigger problem was that Hylla had a natural knack at snowball fights. She hated the shivery/wet feeling that came afterwards and decided that she liked warm weather a lot more.

Of course, being mid-December business boomed. The holiday season was one of the annual spikes and the shifts were longer and busier than ever. But Kinzie still managed to find Hylla a Christmas present. She wasn't sure if Hylla celebrated it or not, but oh well.

On Christmas day the only work there was to do was guarding. It was always like that- no shipping, no delivery, no nothing. Even the men got to wear jeans and no collars for the day.

Hylla and Kinzie had breakfast at a coffee bar at the campus' outskirts with a bunch of girls. They sat on stools with their bags at their feet, drinking the best coffee on campus and eating muffins and cinnamon buns and stealing grapes or berries from each other's plates. Nat, Faith and Daisy were part of the pack of Amazons there, of course. Their group was alone in the shop so they wandered around tables and had conversations throughout the rooms including some rather nasty jokes about mistletoe.

Finally everyone left for a snowball fight. Knowing Hylla's disdain for those, Kinzie didn't even move. They got more coffee and stayed seated.

Her ankles were notched around the legs of her stool. "I've got something for you," Kinzie finally said reaching down for her bag.

"Oh thank the gods; I wasn't sure if the Amazons celebrated Christmas." Hylla said hooking her bag's strap with her foot. They each took out small parcels, set them on the bar and starred each other down.

"Hey, I got the ball going- you start," Kinzie said. Hylla laughed and pushed the small present towards her.

"Merry Christmas," she said.

"Merry Christmas," Kinzie replied. She tore through the paper and unfolded the flaps of the box gently and pulled out a book. She recognised the title, _Peter Pan._

"That way you can stop reading the copies on the shelves," Hylla said.

Kinzie looked up and smiled. "Thanks," she said. "How did you know it's my favourite?"

"Whenever we're in a bookstore or a storage room you find a copy and reread the exact same parts after flipping the book open," Hylla said. "It's obvious."

Kinzie grinned. She'd actually never owned a book before. It seemed unlikely, she knew, but it was true. She'd developed the bad habit of going to and from books in the campus' stock, or borrowing books from the library, or just reading reviews for books or whatnot or whatnot. Besides, she hated asking her mom for stuff and rarely had as a kid- and books with male protagonists didn't fit the Amazon philosophy (though they were Kinzie's secret pleasure).

"Thank you," Kinzie said again.

"Thank yourself for being so obvious," Hylla replied, making Kinzie laugh as she handed over Hylla's present.

She opened it and took out the traveling mug. She read the name on it.

"No," Hylla said shaking her head and looking up, smile plastered on her face.

Kinzie bit her tongue and Hylla's head ducked forwards as she laughed.

"I told you I'd find a mug with your name on it, really there's nothing you should be surprised about." Kinzie said.

Hylla was still laughing twenty five million years later.


	3. In which Hylla Tames a Wild Thing

**Sisters in Arms **

* * *

As Hylla and Kinzie walked out into Seattle for a rare trip outside, they bumped into one of the male customers in the visitor's entrance. Kinzie looked at him like he should be in a museum. Nothing harmful: just curiously. She looked as if she were amazed about how different his build was, and about the facial hair, and the flat chest.

One of the Queen's Court was with him, Counselor Beth.

"Oh, Kinzie dearest…" She said. She excused herself and came to see them.

"Do you know where Counselor Miranda is?" She asked.

"Miranda? No, I haven't seen her." Kinzie said.

Beth closed her eyes and sighed. "I know that she hates your mother's policies on these –ah- new customers, but she can't just skip on me like that…"

"We could go find her," Hylla offered.

"Good, thank you," Beth said. "She's not answering her walkie-talkie and…"

Just that second the client checked his watch.

"Say, are your delays going to take that long?" He asked. "I have other business to attend to."

Beth shot them a pressing look.

"I know where Miranda hangs out," Kinzie said. "Come on, we can cut through the main storage room."

It turned out that they didn't have to go past the main storage room. That's right where Miranda was, managing a crisis.

Several Amazons were grouped around Arion who had gotten out of his cage. Apparently he'd decided that he didn't need the metals he ate to be precious, and so he'd just chewed his way out of his cage. They all help ropes and stuff, as Arion just galloped back and forth along a wall of storage bins. If he was the fastest horse on earth, this was teasing at its best.

"Excuse me," Miranda scolded. "There is a clear alarm over the door- do not enter!"

"I know Counselor," Kinzie said very quickly. She seemed to recoil a bit from the harshness in the tone, as if Miranda was usually soft and kind with Kinzie. "Counselor Beth sent us. That client…"

"Ugh- he's not a client. He's a male." Her eyes rolled.

"Queen Asha still classifies him as a client," Kinzie protested, her cheeks turning pink. "Anyways, he's waiting for you."

"I'm clearly busy. Tell Beth to make a use of that brain Asha keeps her around for and to improvise."

Kinzie blushed. She evidently couldn't say that to a member as high-ranking as someone of the Court.

"They need you especially," Hylla said. "Surely you know how peculiar and rare your set of diplomatic talents are."

If there was one thing Hylla was good at, it was bullshitting.

"For crying out loud," Beth said. "Arion's escaped, clearly that's a priority. He will not respond to tranquilizers this time, he can't be baited back to his cage… It has taken us ages just to get him this close."

Hylla's attention was drawn back to the scene. It was horrible, really, how they were trying to get at it- with ropes and bait as if they were going after a raccoon. Of _course _it wasn't going to work. You couldn't just lasso the fastest horse in the world. He'd trample them all, escape… That was like attempting to call pest control for an alien invasion. The battle plan wasn't appropriate to the fight.

"Why don't you go straight out? I mean, they're handling it…" Kinzie said.

No they weren't.

Arion bucked that very moment and two Amazons had to scramble back to avoid getting trampled.

"Kinzie, use her eyes." Miranda snapped.

"Hey," Hylla said. It was kind of just an instinct at this point to bark out 'hey' at people who were being jerks to Kinzie, so that wasn't actually supposed to come out. Especially not to a counselor as close to the Queen as Miranda was. Her title was 'right hand' which made her the Queen's adviser according to Kinzie.

Miranda turned to face her.

"Let me try something," Hylla said.

"You?"

"Yeah. I've dealt with animals before." She said.

"This isn't a petting zoo animal."

"I've dealt with wild animals," Hylla insisted.

"Let her try," Kinzie said. "Please Counselor Miranda? She's a daughter of Bellona."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"She beat Lulu on her first fight here," Kinzie said.

"That does," Miranda said. "At least I'm sure that if Arion tramples you, your death will be noble."

Hylla didn't see the big fuss about that or why the idea should reassure her. She put her dagger in a panicked Kinzie's hand and slipped away.

"Hylla, weapon." Her friend hissed. Hylla ignored her and slipped between the Amazons with ropes. They protested, but Miranda shut them up.

Hylla walked towards Arion. He looked at her with hate.

He was a child of Neptune and Ceres? Probably Poseidon and Demeter. He must have Greek roots. She still remembered the language from her time at Circe's Island.

"I'm not going to ride you," Hylla said. Her hands were up. "I'm not in the business of making others do things that they don't want to do. Been there, done that, not fun."

Arion looked at her from the side, very suspicious and wary. She stayed there. Never go in front of a horse, you'd disappear into his blind spot and startle him.

"Besides, you're waiting for someone special aren't you?"

Arion neighed.

"That's fine by me," Hylla said. "But until then you should behave a little."

He made a 'pff' sound with his mouth.

"I know, not a great prospect." She said. "Mind if I take a step closer? Okay, here I go."

She stepped forwards. Arion's hooves knocked on the floor impatiently. She froze since he might charge. She stepped forwards again and Arion made a racket.

"Arion, I'm unarmed. Now you're just being insensible." Hylla said. It didn't ground him. He was going to freak out…

She backed away, but that wasn't helping. Plus she felt all these eyes behind her- the Amazons who'd tried to tame Arion by force, and vicious Miranda's.

"You know the alternative is that they slay you," Hylla called out to him.

Arion looked at her.

"Yeah," she said. "That's right. Sure you're a big shot, but they're getting tired of dealing with your piss-poor attitude. And you really have to wait for your real rider, isn't that right? So you're either going to get back in that cage-"

Arion protested.

"Not for long," Hylla said. "Just until you've shown that you're capable of being a calm being. Then they'll move you back to your pen –or maybe I can take you straight there if you behave. And then everyone's happy. Or they can just kill you right now and save themselves the trouble. I'm sure there's a way to kill you, and I'm sure someone in this Kingdom knows how. I'm going to step closer again."

She did.

"You're going to let me bring you back into your cage, and then you're going to calm down. You'll relax, I'll bring you some gems to snack on. What do you like, diamonds?"

Arion neighed. She didn't speak horse, she was pretty sure that nobody did, but it sounded approving.

"Okay, I'll find you diamonds," Hylla said. "Just let me touch you. Just your mane, okay? Let me lead you to your enclosure."

Arion didn't react in any way, but when Hylla stepped forwards she managed to get two steps in before he backed away.

"What did I say?" Hylla asked.

Arion neighed. She was sure that that was a swearword in horse, it just felt like it.

She reached out her fingers and pet the side of his head. He grunted and was evidently mad at her, but she ignored him and kept at it until he calmed down. Her heartbeat slowed down –not getting trampled could do that to you- but she knew that she wasn't out of the woods just yet.

"Keep cooperating with me," she said softly. Arion neighed and she gently wound her fingers in his mane.

She starred at her hand for a few minutes. No way had she just done this.

"Alright," she said turning towards the others. "Counselor Miranda, problem solved. Can someone show me where to bring him?"

Kinzie looked like she was about to throw up or burst out laughing. Miranda looked stunned.

"Claudia, show her." She said. She left the scene quickly, taking long strides as she exited.

* * *

"How in Olympus and Hades did you do that?" Kinzie asked once Arion was safely in his pen outside. Hylla had climbed up on the fence, and she watched him gallop around a bit nostalgically.

"He's not just a horse," Hylla said. "You can't treat him that way. He's smarter than that, and he knows what's going on around him. You have to talk to him and reason with him."

"Nobody ever did that with him before," Kinzie said.

"I worked in retail," Hylla shrugged. "Service with a smile and whatnot."

Her smile wasn't there though.

"I think it's because you're used to wild things," Kinzie said. "And because you're used to figuring people out as you go, and because you think of where you're from just as much as Arion does."

"That was deep," Hylla said.

"I read a lot of Freud and Jung," Kinzie said. "Their books are everywhere in this place."

Hylla's head dipped forwards as she laughed.

* * *

At roll call that evening, all the barrack or hall managers took attendance. Members of the Queen's Court made sure of the presence of all the Amazons who didn't live on the campus were there. Everyone else stood perfectly still and poised hands behind their backs as they'd been taught, and once the attendance-takers were done, they marched to the front of the room where they deposited the sheets.

There were the usual reminders to attend their obligatory training periods, something about people being needed for spare night shifts, a 'please don't bring weapons in the infirmary' reminder, and the Queen made a speech about the new male clients.

"That said;" Queen Asha started, "please examine the situation when you see a male on the grounds. They _should _be always guarded and escorted, but from this point forth please enquire with any male you see if he has an appointment before attacking him if he appears to be mortal. Our pity does not extend to demigods, since they ought to know better than to trespass on our territory."

It was greeted with mixed replies. Most people took the news alright –the biggest disappointment seemed to be that now you had to _ask _before jumping a male now-, but some people looked offended at the mere thought of their land being soiled by the feet of the opposite sex.

"I hope that you all understand why I have taken this decision," the Queen said again. Once she talked, there wasn't a sound. She commanded respect that way, despite her soft features and her young-looking face –which was typical of a nymph. Kinzie had told Hylla that her mother was a _Napaea_, a kind of nymph that dwelled in mountain valleys. In all honesty, on some days Hylla saw Queen Asha and thought that she looked about Reyna's age, and others she thought that the Queen looked old enough to be her own mother. Her hair was a natural looking grey and black mix, like rocks. Her eyes were much clearer than that of any being remotely mortal as well. Kinzie had mortal or demigod or _whatever _blood to make her more human.

"Financially the Kingdom is more than stable, but since expansion is the Amazon dream, new clientele is a good route to take," Queen Asha said. "But I promise to each and every one of the Amazons on this campus that there will be very little male interaction required of you. Now, to move on to a lighter and more pleasant subject, I am sure…"

Daisy stood in the row behind them and muttered 'men are pleasant enough'.

"-there is a promotion to be granted."

It was as if static electricity had been released into the air.

"On the grounds of quick-thinking, strategizing, courageous behaviour and assistance to a Counselor who had other priorities at the moment," Queen Asha said. "My Counselors inform me that there was an inconvenient situation with our immortal stallion, Arion earlier."

Hylla's blood froze in her veins.

"Hylla Castillo," Queen Asha called. "Permission to break ranks granted. Step forth."

Hylla shot Kinzie a look as she walked out of her place. Amongst all the other perfect lines of warriors, her empty place looked foul and wrong.

Since she was so new she didn't have to walk far from her row before arriving at the bottom of the Queen's platform, and kneeling at her feet.

"You have done a service to the Amazon Kingdom by containing that horse," the queen said so softly that nobody else could hear.

"It is my duty," Hylla replied in the same tone.

"I ask you another service; that you keep visiting the stallion Arion to keep him tame."

"I shall," Hylla said. "Daily if that is Your Majesty's wish. But I rather not attempt to ride him."

"That is fine," Queen Asha said. "I think that he likes you because of your ability to treat wild things humanely. Maybe that is because you are a wild thing yourself. I know not."

Her eyes twinkled like Kinzie's. Maybe she and the Queen weren't so different.

"As thanks for your service," the Queen said her voice climbing in decibels. "I promote you to the rank of Cacula."

Whispers tore through the throne room. Hylla had just completely skipped a rank in the totem pole!

The part of her that was a daughter of Bellona though and through –the part of her that had saved her on the pirate ship and come to life in the Kingdom- was victorious. The military part of her felt proud and honoured.

She saw the former emotion in the eyes of someone else in the room: Kinzie. And though it went totally against Hylla's instincts as a warrior… well, maybe she had other instincts. As a friend. As a sister in arms, as she'd put it.

"My Queen, it is an honour," Hylla said. She spoke quietly: she didn't want to look defiant. "Truly. But I do not understand why it has befallen me instead of an Amazon who has all those traits, and years of service. Kinzie Caden."

She met the Queen's eyes.

Silence fell across the room as quickly as the whispers had picked up, and she knew that everyone had been so quiet and attentive that they'd made out her every word and were repeating it to their neighbours. The Queen looked at Hylla with those unreadable eyes that Reyna used to complain about in her. For the first time Hylla understood her little sister's whining, there was no way to tell what was going on in someone's head once they bore those eyes. But Hylla was sure that she'd have her honour stripped away.

"There is logic in your words. Very well," she said finally. "Kinzie Caden, step forth."

Kinzie was wide-eyed and shocked as she came forwards. She was holding her breath, a nervous habit.

"I grant _both _of you the rank of Cacula," Queen Asha said. "And I insist that you both move into the same dormitory." Her eyes twinkled. "I think that you both grow up fairly well under each other's wings."


	4. In which the Kingdom Loses

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

"Oh my gods," Kinzie said. "Oh my gods. Oh my gods."

She was unpacking her things into the drawers that Faith had pointed out for her. "Oh my gods. Oh my gods. I have _drawers now."_

"Kinzie, relax." Faith said. She was crumbled on her bunk bed, right underneath Hylla.

"Are you _insane _Hylla?"

"Not the last time I got checked," Hylla said.

"That must've been a while ago," Faith mumbled.

Hylla kicked her bunk. She liked her spot. She could throw things at Kinzie and kick up at Faith's mattress from her location, it just seemed like an excellent bunking position.

"This is… Nobody's ever _done that."_

"Done what?" Hylla asked.

"Convinced a Queen to give a rank!"

"I didn't convince her," Hylla said. "I just asked politely to remind her. I'm sure it was on her to-do list."

"Nuh-uh," Kinzie said. "Her to-do list for me was _let Kinzie die in that barrack. _Now I'm _Cacula!"_

"It means 'servant of a soldier' in Latin," Faith said. "It's not that hot of a job. We're the rank that all the Counselors get to boss around."

"This is still the best thing," Kinzie said practically bouncing on the toes of her feet. "_Oh gods…"_

"It's like Daisy moved right back in," Faith said leading over her bunk and grinning down at Kinzie.

"Don't worry, she'll calm down and become good old bookwork Kinzie soon." Hylla said with a smile on her lips.

* * *

When Faith had told them how bad the job of a Cacula was, she wasn't kidding. Of course, Kinzie knew its functions in advance, and of course she'd heard stories, and of course she was still thankful for her job.

But her mother's Counselors were actually exhausting. It didn't help that for twenty Counselors and about thirty Honourables (the highest rank under the Queen and her specially-selected court) there were presently only ten Caculas, and on a good shift (like those ever happened!) you'd have eight on duty.

One second Kinzie was getting water for Beth while she was on a phone meeting with an India-based Amazon, the next she was getting lunch for Héloïse who was too wrapped up in letters to go down to the cafeteria or a café, and after that she was running a message for Justine- gods, she hated being a messenger! The worst part was that they were always stupid messages since all the important ones were trusted to the Confiance (two ranks higher, the title based on the French word for 'trust' according to Kinzie's extensive knowledge on the political structure of the Kingdom) or the Honourable.

That wasn't to say that she hated the job. She liked walking around with a walkie-talkie clipped to her belt and answering to whatever problems were going on. She liked having her Cacula insignia pinned to the chest of her top.

Kinzie hadn't even realised that she was near a cross between two hallways when she ran into someone carrying a message in a tube. She dropped it and hissed like a cat before pouncing and making a grab for it.

"I'm sorry," Kinzie said.

"Yeah, you should be _Cacula." _The Amazon said spitting out the last word like an insult. Kinzie recognised her when she straightened up: Lulu. And -surprise, surprise- Doris was just behind.

"Well I am, Lulu," Kinzie said. She tried to side-step her but Lulu walked forwards.

"Look at you- all grown up. What did they send you to do just now? Lick someone's boots clean?"

"Lulu, I don't want to fight." Kinzie said. She was being backed up against a wall.

"Who said anything about fighting?" Lulu said with a cruel smile on her lips.

"Well I'll tell you who said anything about not fighting."

Hylla appeared right behind Lulu who spun around. Kinzie darted away and shouldered Hylla.

"Well, looks like your riding coattails up the ranks doesn't stop there," Lulu said.

"She is not riding coattails, and you are not fulfilling whatever duty you were let out of your cage for," Hylla said nudging her head towards the tube she held.

Kinzie sensed the tension in the air so she grabbed Hylla's hand and they walked away.

* * *

Three months later, Kinzie still thought that she was having the time of her life in the Kingdom. She just woke up happy and went to sleep happy and wasn't happy when she and Hylla had a minor fight about something stupid, when she ran into Lulu/Doris or when a Minister sent her on wild goose hunts. But other than that, Kinzie was having a blast. Not to mention that now, she actually had friends and spent time with people. She went out for coffee, walks, games of laser tag, lunch, whatever. It just felt so much better than being alone with a copy of a book that wasn't even yours.

Even her mother's dinner invitation couldn't have ruined her mood- plus she was allowed to bring someone. Naturally she had Hylla tag along with her.

Hylla wasn't classy and Kinzie wouldn't make her (and probably couldn't if she tried). She was wearing her usual black long-sleeved shirt, pants and army jacket. Her hair was pulled up in a swift ponytail and her insignia and walkie-talkie were pinned at their respective places, breast pocket and belt.

She grabbed Kinzie's hand when they were about halfway there.

"You okay?" Hylla asked concerned.

"Of course, why?"

"You're doing that thing where you hold your breath when you're nervous." Hylla said.

"Oops," Kinzie said. She exhaled. Turns out she _was _in great need of new oxygen in her lungs. "Thanks."

"No problem. We should get a heart monitor set in for you. Do we have any in stock?"

"Ha ha," Kinzie said.

They were at the Queen's Chambers. Really it was just a part of the main building turned into a loft. Two Vigils –the rank in charge of guarding doors- stood there. The door had two locks on it- one for a skeleton key, and one shaped like the pattern on the belt buckle so that the Queen could always open it.

"Kinzie Caden," she said reaching for her ID. "I'm with…"

"Hylla Castillo, yes." One of them said. She smashed a button behind her and a 'buzz' sound went through it.

The doors opened to Mother herself. She wore a pencil skirt, tights and a blouse- all black of course, Queen or not she was an Amazon. She must have had a pretty relaxing training-free day, she'd ditched the belt. She even wore her reading glasses. Kinzie loved when she wore her reading glasses, it just made her look more like a mom than a powerful monarch ruling a kingdom of feminists. They also acted like picture frames around her eyes, centralising the attention anyone brought to her face right at the irises.

"Hello Kinzie," she said with a smile. Kinzie went for her hug and kiss, a monthly or biweekly thing.

"Hello Hylla, I had a feeling you'd be here." Mother said. She really had a beautiful smile when nobody else was around. In that sense, she was like Hylla. They could smile gorgeously, but they dimmed the effect when people were around for whatever miserable reason they saw.

"Good evening Q-"

"No bowing, and it's just Asha for tonight," Mother said. "Or Mrs. Caden if you feel better about it. I'm not working, and I think it's clear enough I'm Queen. Save my manners; come in!"

Hylla smiled at Kinzie and followed her in. Mother was exceedingly good at small talk. Actually, it wasn't even small talk because she _cared. _In Kinzie's books, if you cared it automatically became big talk.

They sat down at the table eventually. The window the table was up against had no curtains and a fantastic view of Seattle. The sun was setting, they were eating right in the sun.

"So how did you two meet?" Mother asked. "I never got that part of the story straight."

"I was her tour guide," Kinzie said trying not to sound bitter. It was the last tour she'd given, and probably the best one. But being a tour guide had still sucked.

"Naturally," Mother said. "You were so good at breaking everything up for new girls, some who weren't as understanding and receptive. How do you like your new functions, darling?"

"A lot," Kinzie said.

"Don't find the Court too demanding, do you?"

"No," Kinzie said.

She'd ranted for twenty minutes to Hylla earlier in the day about how useless her time was when it was spent carrying water bottles around.

"Good, they must've gotten better since my days," Mother said with a smile.

Dinner went alright. She asked Hylla where she was from, Hylla managed to say 'spa' and make it sound apologetic all at once. But Mother was interested and besides, she knew a few Aeaean nymphs (a kind of nymph that were basically Circe's handmaidens).

Hylla told her that the island was completely destroyed now.

"Good, I didn't like any of them." Mother replied. Kinzie nearly spat out her drink.

She got to go through the typical 'have you got your eye on any of the men?' questions, a round about all of her friends…

Everything was going great. Having Hylla there made things less awkward, and for the first time Kinzie could look at what her mother did in conversations or whatnot and think _she actually is a good listener _or _she's a good storyteller after all_.

They were nearly done when their walkie-talkies buzzed.

"We're on break, aren't we?" Kinzie checked.

"Supposed to. Ah- it's Miranda," Hylla said looking at the screen. "Miranda doesn't know how to read schedules. I'll take it Kinzie, you can stay here. Mrs. Caden, thank you so much for the meal. Everything was delicious."

"You're welcome Hylla," Mother said standing and shaking her hand. She folded them in front of her lap. "I enjoyed meeting you furthermore."

Then, because she was Hylla and she couldn't help herself if from being military, she bowed her head. She left the room with her walkie-talkie in front of her mouth saying, "Counsellor Miranda, it's Hylla here, what seems to be the problem? Ten-four."

The ease of the meal seemed to just vanish. Kinzie played with her cutlery. Of course nothing had changed, but Kinzie just didn't feel as confident without Hylla around.

She told Mother about a book she was reading, The Catcher in the Rye, which was in stock as a last effort, a swan song if you will, to conversation as she walked her back to the door.

"Do you recommend it?" Mother inquired. As if she'd ever have time to read all of the books that Kinzie had recommended.

"Yeah, I do." Kinzie nodded.

"Mackenzie," her mother said putting a hand on her arm. The touch felt foreign. Somehow cold as metal but familiar as a favourite hoody all at the same time. Kinzie's blood seemed to ripple- like whenever she'd touch a tree or a plant or another nymph.

"Yes?" She asked.

"I want you to know that if I didn't promote you much much earlier than last month, it wasn't because I wasn't proud of you, that I didn't think you deserved it, or that I didn't notice you. It's just that as Queen, people are watching for signs of favouritism- signs I will not give," Mother said. "And I wanted to make sure that when you'd be in the real ranks, you'd be able to grow with someone that would be able to help while I could not."

"And you think that Hylla's that person?" Kinzie asked.

"I most certainly do. I've never been asked to look at a promotion before by anyone other than a minister or an Amazon who wasn't worth her weight in coal." Mother said.

"What's Hylla worth her weight in?"

"Gold," Mother said. "Maybe diamonds one day. I have a feeling that her legacy won't end here. Nor will yours. I can't help but feel like they're both knotted together closely. She's not very attaching, Hylla, but once she's latched on you know that she'll never let go of you."

* * *

Either Kinzie had taken her time to walk back to the dorm, or she and her mother had had a long conversation. Either way, Hylla had managed to beat Faith at blackjacks for the fifth time in the row.

"I quit," she said slapping down the cards. Hylla smiled. It wasn't exactly her fault. Hylla had learned how to play cards with a bunch of sailors and pirates on a ship. Of course she was good at it. And she knew a fair amount of cheats…

"I'll get lonely," Hylla teased.

"Worst comes to worst, teach Kinzie how to play." Faith said.

"Play what?" her roommate asked distractedly.

"Blackjack," Faith said grabbing her toiletry kit, a pair of sweat pants and an old t-shirt from a trip to Cambodia.

"I've read about it," Kinzie said helpfully.

"That's not how you learn to play a game Mack," Hylla said sitting on her bed shuffling cards. "Sit down I'll show you."

Faith left them and Kinzie sat down in front of Hylla. She chewed on her lip and thought about what her mother had said about how close they were.

"I think I might have been panicking too much to tell you how much that meant to me," Kinzie said.

Hylla frowned.

"You know," Kinzie said. "Mentioning my rank to my mother?"

"Don't sweat it Mack," Hylla said. "Besides, you know I'm so lousy with ranks I thought I was about to get kicked out of the barrack without you coming along."

"No," Kinzie said shaking her head. "You don't understand. Usually people leave me behind when they climb ranks- they disremember me, they get wrapped up in their own stature, which I guess makes sense. But not only did you not forget about me when you moved up, but you didn't even move up if it wasn't with you."

Hylla smiled at her. "I owed you one anyways."

"For what?"

"Well, off the top of my head I can't really…"

Kinzie threw a pillow at her. "Shut up you, you didn't owe me anything. Just accept my thanks."

* * *

Miranda had grabbed Hylla and Kinzie right out of a coffee shop.

"We're on break," Kinzie said.

Hylla had her back for the rudeness. "But I'm sure that Faith or Ariel are just one…"

"Let go of the schedule, this is an emergency. I need to borrow two Vigils who are at the door," Miranda said. "I need you to replace them."

"But only a Vigil can guard the doors," Kinzie said. "It's been that way for..!"

"And a Cacula _must _obey to any orders received by the Court or the Honourables," Miranda said. "I am sure, Kinzie, that the fact that they are the Amazons judged worthy of the position by your _mother _means something to you as far as respecting members of the Court goes."

Kinzie blushed fiercely. Hylla bit down on her lips to swallow back whatever comment she had in store, such a Hylla thing to do.

They both stood in the lobby, straight as broomsticks with their hands behind their backs. From the corner of her eyes Kinzie was watching fish turning around in an aquarium.

"Oh gods, don't tell me that you're being entertained by fish." Hylla said.

"Shush, we're on guard duty." Kinzie said.

Both she and Hylla burst out laughing at the same time.

* * *

That night someone came rapping on the door. Hylla opened, half asleep while Kinzie was still blinking.

Two guards –high up guards, part of the Queen's Court- were there.

"We need Faith McCartney to come with us this instant." One said.

"Not my shift," Faith muttered in her sleep.

"You're needed at the infirmary for your natural genetic talents." The guard repeated. "And it is quite urgent."

"The healers are stuck?" Kinzie gasped. This was a never-before seen!

"We just need Faith McCartney," the guard replied.

Faith climbed down from her bunk and laced up her boots, zipped up her black jacket.

"Geez, who's sick?" Hylla asked turning towards her.

She chewed on her lip.

"No idea," Kinzie said. But the truth was that the Queen's Guards weren't just sent everywhere for no reason… No, of course not. If her mother was sick, the guards would have picked her up too.

The next morning, there were announcements everywhere and posters and memos on all the walls that roll call was cancelled.

"What happened?" Hylla asked.

Kinzie was holding her breath.

"Mack?" She asked again.

"I don't know," she said finally. "No clue."

That was about as clear of a lie as 'the sky is purple and I am a fish named David', but Hylla let it go.

Kinzie didn't eat at breakfast, she just stretched her neck to try and spot Faith.

"She's not there," she muttered helplessly.

"Neither is Shaina, that's who she has her shift with." Hylla tried to remind her.

"Shaina is a legacy to Apollo…" Kinzie moaned.

"What does it have to do with anything?" Hylla asked.

Kinzie closed her eyes and Hylla put two and two together.

It turned out that that effort was wasted because the second of, Miranda came to them.

"Kinzie, sweetheart…" She said.

Nobody ever called Kinzie sweetheart, especially not Miranda who may have known her since childhood, but was a big moody bully recently.

Kinzie looked up, eyes wide, breath caught in her throat.

"It's my mother isn't it," she said. People looked.

"Sweetheart," Miranda said. "Please, not here."

"What happened?"

"We don't know. She was ill at night and…"

"No," Kinzie said sobbing out the word.

"Sweetheart, not here." Miranda said. "Come with me."

Kinzie's limp hand reached out for Hylla. Hylla took her hand and squeezed her fingers. Kinzie returned it.

Hylla was shocked herself.

"No," Kinzie said again.

"Mack, you heard her, not here." Hylla said. "Let's go."

She put an arm under Kinzie and helped her walk out of the cafeteria, as if she'd had a limp.

Kinzie held it together until they were out of there.


	5. In which Hard Things are Said

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

Kinzie turned the pages of an old notebook and looked at some notes that were older than Kinzie's memory. Her handwriting was childish but she could still read it.

_Queen – Ruler of the Amazons_

_Queen's Court- Ten guards, ten counsellors chosen by the Queen to assist her_

_Honourable- The highest rank any Amazon can achieve with time and duty. Sometimes they are put in charge of specific places (Diane at the gym, Maisie in the kitchen, Paula at the infirmary…)_

_Vigil- they guard the doors_

_Confiance- They carry secret messages. Named so because the Queen 'trusts' them._

_Honest- A rank during which Amazons have to prove themselves to show that they are 'honest' in their will to be part of the kingdom_

_Fidus- since the 'fidus' Amazons are so 'loyal' (Latin root) they learn all about the hierarchy and political functioning and history of the Amazon_

_Cacula- 'servant of soldiers' (in Latin) Are servants for the Court and the Honourable_

_Inaudite- Are charged of the newcomers_

_Newcomers- Are new to the Kingdom and have to learn how everything works._

Her mother's handwriting was over Kinzie's to show all the spelling mistakes and corrections. Kinzie had written with a blue pen, her mother had purple. Mother hated purple, it was the colour of the roman half-bloods who'd taken over her previous natural home, but Kinzie loved blue so she'd taken that pen.

_COUNSELLORS_

_1- Right Hand- Advice giver and successor to the Queen in case of natural death (Miranda to Mommy)_

_2- Left Hand- Second advice giver, less important than Right Hand (like Isobel)_

_3- Secrecy Counsellor (is in charge of making sure that mortals don't know about the kingdom- like Beth)_

_4- Information Counsellor- is in charge of collecting information on the outside world, collecting opinions within the Kingdom, and of spying ( like Veronique)_

_5- Security Counsellor (makes sure that everyone is safe inside the Campus and Kingdom – like Tara; gets to censor who comes into the Kingdom and who gets to talk to Queen)_

_6- Foreign Affairs Counsellor- helps the Queen take care of Amazons who aren't on the main campus (like Héloïse)_

_7- Industry Counsellor –is in charge of making sure that the running of the campuses around the world are fair, effective, safe and appropriate, and that the males are treated as fairly as they deserve. Works a lot with Foreign Affairs Counsellor. (like Courtney)_

_8- Justice Counsellor- gives the queen advice on justice, ethics, rules and policy (like Quinn)_

_9- Finance Counsellor- gives the queen advice on money, prices, sales, and currency exchange between countries, gods, Greeks and Romans (like Abigail)_

_10- Marketing Counsellor- gives the queen advice on sales and publicity for the stock (like Justine)_

_***The ten other members of the Queen's Court are guards***_

_Mommy The Queen always has the last say on everything and a good queen can and will have input on all of the subjects_

That last one killed her. She'd crossed out 'mommy' and replaced it with 'The Queen' but really Kinzie just couldn't do that, she had never been able to. Maybe that was why it had been so nice last time she'd eaten with Hylla and mother. Because when she'd introduced a friend she'd seen the difference between her mother and the Queen for the first time since she'd turned six, and it had felt good and even her stupid book recommendations had made Kinzie feel good and she'd been excited to see this side of her mom. She'd always been excited about her mom deep down. _It wasn't fair._

She collapsed on her desk crying and Hylla's hair wasn't even dry from the shower she'd just come back from when she wrapped Kinzie up in her arms and held her close and said 'it's okay Mack, it's okay'.

Really it wasn't and they both knew it, but sometimes friendship was about bullshitting for someone's sake.

* * *

Hylla dropped a bag on Kinzie's side table. She looked up blinking- her nose suddenly overwhelmed with all the new scents Hylla had just dragged into the room.

"What's this?" She asked blinking at the light. Hylla didn't know much about nymphs, but she was hoping that long-term confinement didn't lead to slow transformation into vampires. Kinzie looked horrible though. Her eyes were sunken, her face looked old, her hair was in a rat's nest and her face was paler and slimmer than usual. She hadn't particularly left the room since her mother had died, and that had been three days now- three days during which the people in the infirmary were trying to pinpoint the cause of death.

"There's a pad thai, a bagel with cream cheese, a shrimp taco straight from the kitchen- _with _avocado, spring rolls, French fries and a bag of skittles," Hylla said. _All of your favourites, _she wanted to add. "Please eat at least one of those things."

* * *

Amazons wore black all the time. To commemorate the dead, they wore the colour gold- to celebrate the richness of a warrior's life. Usually a few close friends would walk around with jewellery as an accent, but when a Queen died… Things were taken seriously. The whole place seemed to shine.

Kinzie played with the ring on her finger. Her mother's- she'd believed in wearing gold all the time for the Amazons you didn't even know. Maybe Kinzie would take up that tradition.

Hylla was shouldering her, and Kinzie knew that her hand was out for being taken at any time. It took everything she had not to cling onto Hylla as she watched the front of the throne room.

Miranda was onstage, wearing the belt that Kinzie had come so used to seeing on her mother's waist. It wasn't fit for the new Queen though, the belt was too loose. It hung too low. It had been her mother's for so long…

"Amazons," she said. "Whether you are from here or from our campuses abroad, I welcome you here today- though nobody… nobody knows how much I wish the –ah- circumstances were different."

It took things that Kinzie didn't even know she had to make her keep a straight face.

"Queen Asha was the first nymphic Queen the Kingdom had in many years," she said. "Her rise to the throne was unexpected, for she wasn't even a minister. But she was quick to point out an injustice, a quality she has passed down to all those closest to her, and she dared to defy her tyrannical predecessor. She was organised, respectful and her ideas and concepts for the Kingdom were… outside the box. It is with a heavy heart that I become her successor, as her death was… natural."

Kinzie frowned. _Her ideas and concepts for the Kingdom were… 'outside the box'. What the hell was that supposed to mean?_

Miranda went on to talk about her plan for her own reign as Queen and the values she would imbed.

Kinzie's heart was racing and her head was spinning and she was just completely _screaming _inside because she'd come here for… not a speech, but a funeral. She'd had to mentally brace herself for seeing her mother's body in an open coffin, then seeing her mother's body covered in a shroud and burned, and then seeing her mother's ashes. She couldn't go through that again; the shock would kill her. Kinzie's heart pounded.

She grabbed Hylla's hand to say _something is terribly wrong._

Hylla cupped her other hand around her mouth and yelled out;

"How is this a funeral?"

She was quick enough for it to go unnoticed, but her message didn't. Miranda froze and people started whispering and arguing.

"I understand," Miranda said, "The confusion. However, I must tell you, that Queen Asha's body will not be burned as per tradition."

Kinzie felt like she'd just gotten slapped.

"We do not know what caused her sudden death, and so necessary protections must be taken to contain it."

"So why in the world is her coffin not closed?" An Amazon in front of them muttered.

"That's bull. She's not contagious, I heard some healer say it while I was there," Faith said. She took Kinzie's other hand. "It's okay, Kinz."

There was a general uproar and so Miranda dismissed all of them. She walked away, surrounded by all ten of her guards. None of them were Queen Asha's. Actually, the Queen's Court had been completely reformed. Not even Asha's left hand, the one whose job was second to Miranda's old one, was the same.

Faith and Kinzie held her by the arms and led her to the coffin. There was a group of people who were waiting, but they let Kinzie pass and see her mother.

She lay there. Kinzie had no idea what else she could possible say. People usually talked about dead people and described their bodies as if they were sleeping, but Kinzie didn't buy that. Queen Asha was too still and pale. She wore the usual black dress clothes that Kinzie had always seen her wear, except the Amazon belt wasn't on her. It was on her best friend.

How awful was that? That would be like Hylla dying and Kinzie having to take over her job!

She took a deep breath. She'd expected her emotions to hit her in the face like a boomerang when she saw the body, but it didn't. She'd known that her mother was gone long before, had she not?

But she was still leaning pretty heavily on Hylla as they went out.

* * *

Hylla was running an errand for Counselor Rebeca, the new Secrecy Minister. She thought that Beth's firing was weird: Kinzie had told her that Miranda, Asha and Beth had served in the Kingdom at the same times and had bunked together.

When she passed the Queen's chambers, something caught her attention. It wasn't the Vigils who were guarding her doors, as she was used to seeing. It was the Queen's guards.

"What are you looking at, _concula?" _One of them said. "Get moving."

She recognised Lulu.

Gods, so many things were wrong with this picture.

* * *

Hylla was pulling off her boots. She stripped down to her tank top and smashed down on her bed. The lights were off, since both she and Faith were working night shifts. Kinzie couldn't sleep.

"How was duty?" Kinzie asked.

Every now and then she'd try and make conversation to reassure Hylla and Faith that she was okay, although they both obviously knew that that wasn't quite true. Not yet anyways.

"Busy. The new ministers seem to be so obsessed with their new power that they absolutely _have _to be all over us." Hylla said.

"None of them are the same as my mother's cabinet." Kinzie said.

"Maybe Miranda needed the change." Hylla suggested.

"Yes, maybe."

It was quiet again for a while.

"Kinzie, can I tell you something that you won't like hearing?" Hylla asked in the dark.

Kinzie frowned, but she figured that Hylla didn't have anything to say that she'd hate more than anything in her head right now.

"Anything," she said. "You know that."

"Your mother didn't look like she'd been sick. She looked like she'd been poisoned."

Kinzie's blood froze and she sat up. Hylla heard her blankets ruffle and she sat out too, a big shadow on the opposite side of the room. The room was quiet.

"Kinz? Mack?" Hylla asked.

"How would you know?" Kinzie asked in a small voice. It wasn't that she didn't believe Hylla, because she trusted Hylla with anything. It was that Hylla was saying something that Kinzie didn't want to hear, much less believe.

"Because I've already poisoned people," Hylla said. "Or at least my sister did."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Doesn't it? Your mother was Queen. Monarchs get assassinated all the time." Hylla said. "Heck, wars have been fought over children who'd _inherit _the throne."

"But who would do that?"

Hylla's voice sounded smaller. She sounded as if she was lying. "I don't know _that_."

"No, you do." Kinzie said straightening up some more. "You're lying."

"No I'm not, I'm clueless. Totally oblivious. Good night."

"_Hylla."_

Her friend was feigning sleep now.

"God!" Kinzie shouted. "You can't just drop a bomb on me like that and pretend to be sleeping!"

"Kinzie I…"

"Worst: you can't just _lie _to me." Kinzie said trembling with anger.

"Kinzie!" Hylla said sitting up. She leaned towards her lamp and turned it on. "I would not…"

"Clearly you _would," _Kinzie said. "I mean, that's not possibly the truth…"

"I said you wouldn't like hearing it…" Hylla said.

"No," Kinzie said. "Shut up. _Shut. Up."_

"Mack-"

"_No." _Kinzie said, her temper flaring up when she heard the nickname.

She saw Hylla wince. "Kinzie, I'm sorry I didn't mean to…"

"Just shut up Hylla," Kinzie said. "Shut up and go to sleep and don't you dare say that ever again."

There was a knock on the door. Hylla opened it. She heard a guard tell them to quiet down, and Hylla agreed and apologised quickly before shutting the door. She nearly didn't register it, but the voice sounded like Louise's- one of Miranda's guards.

She looked at Kinzie with pain in her eyes, but Kinzie was too angry. It was her fault that she'd brought that up- how could she?

"Goodnight," Kinzie said before falling back onto her pillows.


	6. In which it's Three Against One

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

She spotted Hylla already sitting outside the Queen's office.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"A Vigil came to get me," Hylla said dryly. It was the tone she'd used when she'd arrived to the Kingdom and talked even more scarcely than she did now. Before they were friends. "You?"

"Same." Kinzie said, . The only available seat was next to Hylla, and Kinzie avoided it. She didn't want to deal with this just the morning after their fight. They'd managed to ignore each other all morning, they'd do it now.

Finally the Queen called for them, both of them at the same time. Kinzie grimaced but followed Hylla inside.

The shock she had when she saw the office, exactly the same as when her mother had occupied it, was great. No- there was one difference. A framed picture of seven-year-old Kinzie was missing from the fireplace mantel. That was even more painful.

Miranda sat at her desk, typing away on a laptop. She wore reading glasses and looked sternly at her screen.

"Queen Miranda," Hylla said stiffly. Kinzie would have shushed her for the rude tone of voice Hylla was using if she was presently accepting to talk to the daughter of Bellona.

"Ah, hello my dears." Miranda smiled. "I was hoping you'd get a chance to drop by today. How was work?"

"Fine, Milady." Kinzie said.

Hylla nodded. Kinzie was suddenly annoyed that Hylla was riding coattails on her words. She didn't want to speak for both of them all of a sudden. She'd done it since last September, but suddenly it seemed revolting and wrong and she didn't like it at all.

"Well I hope not too well," Miranda said. "I've decided I'd like to promote you two."

"Promote us?" Hylla asked. She sounded so suspicious, Kinzie wanted to slap her.

"Yes," Miranda said. "You two have been… well, you do fine work in general."

She reached into her drawer and took out two pins, handing one to each of them.

"Congratulations. You are now _Fidus. _As I'm sure you know your duties now are to learn as much as you can about the Kingdom before proceeding in your ranks, task I trust you two with fully." Miranda beamed. "Doesn't that make you two happy?"

"Yes Milady." Hylla said quietly.

"Very, Milady." Kinzie added.

They bowed and were out.

"Why would she promote us?" Hylla was muttering under her breath as they walked back to the dorms.

"Because we deserve it," Kinzie snapped. "That's exactly _why _people get promoted. Just by the way."

"I _know _that," Hylla snapped back. They didn't talk for a while.

"Was the guard who came last night part of the Court?"

"Geez Hylla, can't you just take a promotion?" Kinzie sighed.

"Was she?" She insisted.

"Yes, she was." Kinzie said to get rid of her. It worked, and that was the last time they had a conversation for quite some time.

* * *

Hylla went to the training rooms alone. It felt wrong to be paired up with another random Amazon. It felt wrong not to be fighting with or teaching Kinzie.

"Want to go again?" Her partner, Gina a visiting Italian Amazon, said. They'd been practising a wrestling takedown, going back and forth between the two of them.

"Sure," Hylla said.

* * *

Kinzie was proof-reading a list of client names for the new Counsellor of Marketing, Odette, making sure that the contact information was correct.

"The list is fine, Minister." Kinzie said. "But there seem to be a lot of clients missing- mostly recent ones…"

"Oh, they're not missing." Odette said. Kinzie frowned and the minister elaborated. "The Queen has banned all male clients once again, thus purifying the Kingdom."

* * *

Nat, Faith and Daisy caught their breaths when Kinzie sat down at breakfast.

"Morning," Nat finally said with a smile, trying to be the diplomatic one. "Slept well?"

"Very," Kinzie said. "Too much actually, I'm late for my shift."

Faith swore. "Oh gods, I'm so sorry! I'm still not used to setting the alarm once I'm done with it."

That was because Hylla always did it.

"No problem," Kinzie said. She grabbed an apple off of Faith's plate, bit into it and ruffled the former's hair before walking away.

Hylla looked into her plate and pushed her hash browns around.

"A week," Faith said slamming her hand down on the counter. "A whole entire _week, _for the sake of the goddesses. That's how long we've endured this fight of yours for and I, for one, am not enduring it any longer."

"Yeah, Faith's totally right. Seriously, what happened?" Nat said. "I'm sure it can be fixed, like, it can't be _totally _the end of the world."

"It doesn't matter," Hylla said. "Kinzie chose to react to something I said like she did and there's nothing to do."

"Seriously, what _did _you possibly say?" Daisy said. "Wouldn't you two just like to, you know, make up for everything? Wouldn't that just feel better?"

Hylla dropped her fork. "Of course it would, but I haven't done anything I'm sorry for. It's going to be Kinzie's job to round the corner and come back to the land of sane people."

"Okay, okay," Nat said. "I get that, I totally get that. But can you tell us?"

Hylla crossed her fingers and starred at her food.

"Oh for the love of…" Faith let her sentence dangle in frustration. "What is this, middle school?"

"By the looks of it," Hylla said.

* * *

July rolled in, hot and sticky.

At roll call, Kinzie's feet were prickling with pins and needles. She was spending her whole days at the library- no errands to run, only studying to do, and no Hylla to train with.

She stood still and straight anyways, ignoring Hylla who was at her left.

Miranda took the stage and made a few announcements that were so typical that they weren't worth even noting.

Then she announced something that was so surprising, nobody would be in a small enough state of shock to note it down.

She'd just reinstated the death penalty.

* * *

The girl she was fighting with collapsed against the mattresses just as Diane was letting them get back to their feet for another round, and she waved her hands giving in. The referee's whistle blew, and Hylla helped the poor girl up.

_It's not your fault, _she wanted to say. _I'm sure you're a good fighter. I'm just extremely mad right now._

Hylla showered once the matches were over and goofed off in the locker room with the other girls, as per usual. She polished her knife- usually she'd do that in the dorm, but right now Hylla tried not to do anything other than sleeping in the dorm. It was her number one strategy to avoid Mack. Kinzie. Whatever.

As she walked out she thought that she might go see Arion. She did every day even if Queen Asha was gone. Arion became disruptive and difficult on the days that she was too busy to drop by, as a matter of fact. He hated everyone in the Kingdom, but Hylla a bit less.

Someone grabbed her hair. Not expecting it, Hylla tripped backwards and collapsed against the wall. What sounded like a pack of hyenas started laughing around her.

Lulu. Doris. And a new goon, a girl she thought was named Hylla.

"Fancy seeing you here," Lulu said.

"Not really," Hylla said.

"True, you are a very lonely sulker nowadays."

Doris laughed. Lynda acted like an actrice who'd missed her cue, and she started laughing offset.

"New goon. Very nice. I see you're venturing into red heads now, like the size: midget." Hylla said. Lynda blushed furiously. No way was Hylla going to let this tiny Newcomer think for a single second that she had anything on Hylla just because she hung out with Lulu.

"I like to refer to Lynda as a friend," Lulu said. "Yes, the word might seem strange to you…"

Hylla's fist balled up at her side. Doris stepped forwards menacingly, Lynda following her example. The good wasn't broken in and trained yet.

"Ah, ah, ah." Lulu said with a smile on her lips. She pointed to the pin on her chest.

"I'm a Vigil," she said. "You know what attacking a Vigil means…"

Of course she knew: it meant a trial since the Vigil guarded the most important places, magic items, and people in the Kingdom. And with the death penalty back into play, and Queen Miranda sending her guards to spy at Hylla, Faith and Kinzie's door… Hylla didn't want to go there.

_Great, _she thought. _Miranda's handing out promotions like they're Halloween candy._

"But when a Vigil attacks on the other hand…" Lulu said with a shrug. "Especially if there are eyesight witnesses that say that it was provoked…"

Doris and Lynda smiled like 'that's us, isn't this exciting, Lulu gave us a job!'

_Screw my life, _Hylla thought.

She ducked the first punch and elbowed Lynda. Of course she was new and this was most likely one of her first fights, so Hylla made herself an escape route.

Lynda's nose was bleeding. Oops.

"You…" Lulu hissed.

What the hell had Lulu expected her to do? Stand there _as she was being punched_?

Doris aimed a kick but Hylla backed up just in time. Lulu caught Hylla in the jaw with a punch and that rattled her good, but she managed to duck in between Doris' legs and throw Lynda _back _into the wall to escape another punch. She was dizzy when she got up again.

She didn't want to run away and give Lulu the illusion that she'd been beaten, but she couldn't fight back, nor could she duck forever. She was stuck between a rock, a hard place, and three angry Amazons.

Option number three fell from the sky.

Doris cried out and none other than Kinzie pulled her to the ground, the bigger girl's wrist twisted. Kinzie kicked her in the ribs for good measure before they cornered Lulu and Lynda. Hylla took the left, Kinzie took the right naturally. It came easy to fight with her after all the training they'd done together.

Lulu hissed and threw a punch. Hylla grabbed her fist and swung up, wrapping her legs around Lulu's waist and pulling her to the ground. Lulu threw a punch and nailed Hylla in the nose. She felt the blood build up and drip down.

By the sounds of metal scrapping behind them, Kinzie and Lynda were now fighting with weapons.

Hylla elbowed Lulu on the face, and the later cried out. Hylla had good control of her wrists, and she managed to twist one.

"Call off Lynda and leave Kinzie and I _alone," _Hylla said twisting.

Lulu's legs twisted from underneath her, and Hylla was thrown off. Doris decided to come back in the fight, and she pounced on Hylla. Hylla threw her back, but not quickly enough so that Lulu didn't have a proper chance to pounce on Hylla and pin her properly with an annoyingly perfect technique. Doris held her arms down above her head, pinning her so that Hylla couldn't move in any way.

Flashbacks of the pirate ship flooded to Hylla's memory. She got dizzy. She got _scared. _Never had she been scared in the Kingdom before, apart from the day Queen Asha died. Hylla felt like she was running out of breath. Her head spun. Her face flushed. Her vision blurred. All she could hear was pirates laughing in her ears. She panicked and couldn't figure out for the life of her how to fight back, she was at a _total _loss…

Lulu punched Hylla and was choking her when a loud, deeper voice yelled at them.

Diane was the one to pull off Lulu from Hylla, right after she'd made Lynda and Kinzie drop their weapons. Air flooded back to Hylla's lungs so quickly that she choked.

"What was that?" Diane bellowed. "What was that?"

"Diana, Ma'am, Lulu started it I saw them. Hylla didn't attack a Vigil." Kinzie said right away. "I swear it, I'll swear it on the Styx if I have to- even on the earth! It wasn't- it wasn't-"

The desperation of Kinzie's voice made one thing clear: she too was concerned about the death penalty's return. And she was… not trusting its execution to be fair? Wow.

"I know Caden, save your breath." Diane snapped. "I have security cameras in my office, you know. I was just filling in some orders for new equipment when I saw it happen. You ought to know better, Marceau. Shame on you. I'll have to talk to the Queen about demoting you. Get out of her and make sure I don't ever see you in my gym again."

Lulu was bright red but she couldn't object to the orders of an Honourable, much less the one responsible of training.

Diane turned towards Doris.

"You- go back to your room and get something from the first aid kit to fix your face. And you- you're going to go back to the barracks and don't I see you hanging out with Amazons that much higher up the totem pole than you, understand Spencer?"

Lydia looked scared out of her wits.

"What did I just say? Get out of here." Diane said.

The three of them left, Lynda's tail between her legs and Lulu's steps slow and furious.

Kinzie gave Hylla her scarf and she held it to her face. Her mouth and her nose were bleeding.

"Castillo," she called to Hylla. "Are you okay?"

Hylla couldn't make herself nod.

"Something 'bout the way they were holding you down got you out of your spirits?" Diane said.

Hylla nodded and she was so, so sure that Diane understood exactly why.

Kinzie knew too. Hylla had told her once, to help explain why she'd flipped out so much when she'd learned that the pirates were still on the loose and –worse- possibly after Reyna.

She put her hand around Hylla- partially as support, and partially because passing out wasn't that distant and abstract of a possibility yet.

"Bless you," Diane said. "Caden, bring her to the infirmary and see what they can do about your nose. You a demigod, aren't you? Yeah? Then Caden, make sure they give her something against dreams too. No use making you break down completely 'cause some people are idiots."

Hylla nearly felt like crying. Someone understood her panic and wasn't judging her for the horrible flashback, she wasn't going to get in any trouble, and Kinzie was holding onto her in support and had come to help her out… Too much was going on at a bad time.

The head nurse, Paula, fussed over Hylla. She was a kind old woman who filled Hylla's mouth with cotton and sat her down on a spare hospital bed. Kinzie sat next to her and held the icepack to her eye because Hylla's hands were busy.

"You're going to have some pretty interesting colours going on," Kinzie said.

"I feel it," Hylla said. Her speech was slurry because of her mouthful of cotton.

They were quiet until Paula came back and fixed Hylla up fully. After making sure she was a demigod, which Kinzie answered for, she administered as much nectar and ambrosia as she saw fit.

"Sweetie, always make sure that if you take this stuff on your own, not to OD on it, or else you'll burn up. Unfortunately today I can't really have you _chew _ambrosia."

Hylla nodded.

Kinzie put in the request for the dream serum and Paula happily handed it over. After giving them a fresh ice pack, Paula told them to go, but that Hylla should sleep on her side in case she started coughing blood again and that tomorrow she'd be all bruised up so brace yourselves.

They thanked her and left.

Faith had left a note –she was hanging out with one of the males tonight- and so they were alone.

Hylla sat down on her bed. Kinzie fluffed her pillow for ages.

"What were you doing near the gym?" Hylla finally asked turning towards Kinzie, dropping the ice pack from her face.

Kinzie pushed her hair behind her ear. It kept falling back so this lasted a while before she finally spoke.

"The two biggest moves my mother made as Queen was to eliminate the death penalty and invite businessmen as clients," Kinzie said. "I… I missed you and I've been thinking over what you said and I think that you've got a point. I think that you're right, and I'm sorry that I reacted like I did."

Hylla smiled and her whole face hurt but she didn't care.

"It's fine. I should have found a better way to say it. Thanks for saving my butt today."

"Didn't do much for your face," Kinzie said.

Hylla shrugged. "It'll heal. I'd probably have ended up going into shock if you hadn't… thanks."

Kinzie smiled. "Are we okay now?"

"Of course we are," Hylla said, smiling herself.


	7. In which there is Resistance

"That's beautiful," Faith said. "Wow Hylla, you rock that blue."

Hylla was wincing and smiling at the same time as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, studying her bruise. That was Kinzie's sentiment exactly.

Her lip was split, and her eye was black. The bruise stretched down to her cheek.

"Someone make up a really cool story about how this happened. Make me sound badass." Hylla said.

They spent twenty minutes debating as they got dressed for the day.

"I'm just going to go back to the infirmary to thank Paula," Hylla said. "Don't think I made myself clear last night. Later."

"Don't be late for study hall," Kinzie called out as she slammed the door behind her.

"Well I'm glad you two made up," Faith said. "Also I'm glad that the karma truck is running over Lulu's ranks. Thanks for that. I think it's nearly worth her black eye. I'm just having a very happy day."

Kinzie laughed and grabbed her own bag to get a move on with the day. She wanted breakfast badly.

On her way there she took a shortcut past the treasury so that she might intercept Hylla as she came out of the infirmary.

Then she recognised the Vigil at the treasury door and she froze in her steps.

"What are _you _doing there?" she hissed.

"Why Kinzie," Lulu said. "I'm on duty. You might be familiar with it: it's when you're worth enough to work for the Kingdom. No, you don't know about that? Oh well."

"You… After what you _did?" _Kinzie spat. _You beat up my best friend three against one just after she'd spent two hours training, and you nearly had her go into a full-out all-hands-on-deck PTSD flashback or seizure or whatever they're called! _

"Queen Miranda trusts in the promotions she's made." Lulu said simply.

And in that moment Kinzie suddenly realised what Hylla had been talking about in July, when she'd been talking about how someone had poisoned her mother.

Miranda.

She'd been talking about Miranda.

* * *

"I've got coffee," Kinzie said popping back in the room.

"Oh, Amen." Hylla said. They had an exam tomorrow, as _Fidus_. Hylla wasn't very nervous, Kinzie had told her most of this stuff before, but she didn't feel like screwing up an exam because she might misspell a rank or important name like 'Otrera'.

"So," Kinzie said as she handed Hylla a cup. "Who do you think killed the Queen?"

Hylla looked up at her, a bit shocked that she was bringing that up. "I'm… well, I'm not completely sure and I don't have a strong theory or proof or anything…"

"I think it's Miranda," Kinzie said. Hylla choked on her drink.

"Geez, that was direct." Hylla said. "That was… what I thought too. I just didn't want to… say it. I know she was like an aunt to you."

Kinzie breathed deeply. "She hated what my mother did with the Kingdom, and she undid the two biggest changes ASAP."

"Not to mention that the same night I talked to you about the poison, her guards came to tell us to shut up and we got promoted the next day. She was trying to sucker us into something." Hylla said.

"Speaking of promotions," Kinzie said nervously, "I need to tell you something… Lulu's still a Vigil."

Hylla winced. "Oh…"

"I'm sorry," Kinzie said.

Hylla didn't acknowledge that. It wasn't Kinzie's place to apologise for someone else. "Is that why Diane wasn't at the gym today?"

"Maybe," Kinzie said biting her lip. Hylla didn't want the Honourable to be in trouble because of them…

The door flew open and Faith stood there looking alarmed. Her eyes were wide and frightened.

"Shut up both of you," she said. "We can hear you from outside the door, are you trying to get yourselves killed?"

Neither of them spoke. Kinzie was holding her breath, Hylla was making up a lie to save their butts.

Faith shut the door. "Since when have you two been thinking about this?"

"A while," Hylla said. "Well, Kinzie just got on the same page yesterday or so."

Faith shook her head in shock. "I didn't think…"

"Wait- did _you _know?" Kinzie said.

"Well, I had a sneaking suspicion. I was one of the healers in the infirmary on the night Asha died, wasn't I?" Faith said. "The second I mentioned that there might be a poisoning involved, Miranda kicked me right out on the grounds that I 'was disrupting and worrying the queen'. I was due for a promotion in June, wasn't I? I'm stuck as _Fidus _now. It wasn't hard to figure out why Miranda had it in for me."

"I'm sorry Faith," Kinzie said.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "I thought that I was crazy, but clearly if you two think so two…"

"Hylla's seen people poisoned before."

"Doesn't surprise me at all," Faith said. "You two have a plan don't you?"

Kinzie and Hylla looked at each other. It was like Kinzie read Hylla's mind.

"Proof," Kinzie said. "We need proof."

"I have a plan for that," Hylla said. Her heartbeat was steady, but Hylla was a million times more conscious of it than she would be in any other given moment. Like on the pirate ship. Suddenly things were at stake, and Hylla was the one with the plan that could backfire.

Kinzie kept her eyes on Hylla- hopeful eyes, ready to follow her to the ends of the world even if her plan was stupid- just for the sake of friendship.

She reached inside her bedside table's drawer and took out an old pin. Her _Cacula _pin. Kinzie's eyes lit up in recognition.

"Explain," Faith demanded.

* * *

Hylla was the one sent in, which made sense. She was used to this sneaking around business, she'd done it more than once- to escape from the foster system with a six-year old child and get to Circe's Island, at C.C.'s itself, in the pirate ship…

Kinzie was Hylla's backup. She was waiting a few halls away with her textbooks, pretending to study for exams while her roommates were being too loud. She and Hylla had 'borrowed' tiny headsets in the form of adhesive chips from the storage rooms. Another fancy knickknack Hylla had with her was a smartphone that Faith was supposed to be trying out and then review. That was another responsibility of the _Fidus. _It had a camera on it.

She'd used a passage that Kinzie had found as a child to get into the Queen's chambers without the guards sensing her. She looked around. It was basically the same as when she'd had supper with Kinzie and her mom. The Queen's personal things had been moved though, and anything like throw pillows or decorations had been replaced by Miranda's possessions, all things in a brighter palette. Kinzie's childhood memorabilia was gone. There was an encaged bird in one corner.

Hylla went for the bedroom. Things of importance were kept in office; crucial things were kept in bedrooms. Tip number twenty-four she'd learned from Blackbeard's ship, she supposed.

She crept inside and memorised the room so that she'd be able to replace everything she might move to its original spot.

She went for the bed right away, checking under the mattress, the pillows and the bed.

She went to the desk after finding nothing and looked through the drawers. She looked through carefully, until she found a box of receipts. The strange part was that none of them were from , which was weird for any Amazon but particularly if you were in the Court.

She looked around. Some of them were from male-owned industries- which could be used to shun the Queen but not to prove any criminal intent. She took pictures anyways. They were for very basic things- some specific kind of tea that the Kingdom didn't carry, a gift for a baby with a card dedicated to a niece… Nothing remotely interesting popped up until she found a receipt for an apothecary's shop.

Hylla looked over the purchases. They were a list of ingredients. They didn't mean anything to her, but Faith might have a clue. And, on the plus side, Miranda had signed the receipt. She took a picture of it and put it back where it was from.

She looked further. The only other thing she photographed were flash cards she'd found pressed between the pages of an old notebook- they seemed to go along with a presentation on why the death penalty shouldn't be banned. It must've been presented to the Court. Throughout the notes Miranda was very clear that she did not agree with Asha.

She was just about to open the fourth drawer when Kinzie's voice gave her a heart attack.

"_Hylla," _the voice projected in her ear via computer chip said. "_Get out of there. Guards are coming."_

"_What kind?" _Hylla replied.

"_Vigil; get out!"_

Hylla didn't do that, she'd look suspicious. She got the heck out of the bedroom though, because that was worst, and she started rummaging around the kitcen.

The Vigils came in.

"You," they called.

Hylla spun around.

"Oh, hi," she said with a nervous smile. She wasn't charming, that was Daisy's job.

"What are you doing here?"

"The Queen sent me so that I could pick up some tea for her," Hylla said.

"The Queen is attended to by the Court," one Vigil said sternly. She was lucky that Lulu hadn't popped in.

"Yeah, but I suppose she forgot for a second. She often got me to run errands when she was Minister. It was such a shock to her when the late Queen Asha died, I've heard that they were friends since the day they both joined the Kingdom." Hylla said.

Her lie seemed to make the Vigil uncomfortable. "Fine. Get what you need, and get out."

Hylla nodded, looked through a few drawers until she found the tea she'd spotted on the receipt, and left. The Vigil picked up a briefcase and left after her. Hylla should have checked that before going into the bedroom. Oh well, she'd gotten what she'd needed.

* * *

Nat and Daisy were sitting on the unused top bunk when they got back to the dorm.

"You got anything?" Faith asked.

"I hope not," Nat said. "Hylla, this is a totally serious accusation you're bringing up. And breaking into the Queen's chambers?"

"It was necessary," Hylla said.

"You could've gotten in so much trouble. Miranda would've been so mad; she'd have totally executed you now that the Death penalty's back."

"It was necessary," Hylla repeated. There was a seriousness imposing itself in her, and it kind of shocked and amazed Kinzie both at once. Even more so, it made Kinzie think of all the Queens she'd ever known. "Besides, I found something. Faith, have a look at this."

Hylla tossed the smartphone over and Faith went straight to pictures.

"What's Miranda's godly heritage?" Hylla asked.

"Daughter of Aesculapius," Kinzie said. "Distant cousin of Faith's here."

"We don't talk about that," Faith said looking through the pictures. "But I'm not going to deny it. Miranda knew what she was doing."

"What is it?" Kinzie worried.

"Some ingredients to make a pretty intense poison," Faith said shaking her head. "Oh boy. I'm not even sure that _I'd _try making that one."

"Is it that lethal?" Daisy asked.

"Worst: it's dangerous to make. I've seen it done once, back when I lived with a bunch of healers before getting here. It's a deadly effective poison- doesn't leave a trace unless you've seen it before. It makes everything look like an illness. We call it the Fabricated Disease."

"So this is legit?" Daisy asked. "Oh gods…"

"I'm afraid it is," Kinzie said with a grimace.

Nat wound her hands in her hair. "Oh gods. Oh gods. Oh gods, this is bad. So very bad, so, so totally bad…"

"Wait- what do you mean dangerous to make?" Hylla asked.

"It's corrosive, reactive, feisty about heat, toxic, requires the use of several poisons and there are studies right now to see if maybe it's radioactive." Faith said.

"Good fun," Daisy said.

"So if Miranda would have brewed it, there's a chance that she has a mark on her?" Kinzie said, an idea coming to her mind.

"I'd say an 85% chance, yes." Faith said.

"Would she have had to see another healer?" Kinzie asked.

"Probably," Faith said. "It's hard to treat yourself."

"Let's go find Paula," Hylla said standing up looking at Kinzie, with a light in her eyes. She understood.

* * *

Paula thought that their concern for their Queen was touching. Daisy said that yes, and make some excuses about Miranda looking peachy.

"I'm sure it could be the stress of having to look after the kingdom so quickly after a loss like Asha's…" she said charming the pants off of Paula."But we're just worried, and we wouldn't want to disturb her or make her think that she's doing any less of a good job than any other Queen, I'm sure you understand…"

"Oh of course," Paula said. "Well, Miranda last came here… I think it was in June. Yes, early June."

"Why?" Daisy said. "That's so strange. Asha was still reigning."

"It was completely unrelated to stress or anything like that…" Paula said shaking her head. "It was a burn. Strange, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Daisy said frowning.

"What kind of burn?" Faith said imposing herself as a healer.

They exchanged a few medical terms and Faith nodded, having understood everything.

"I suppose you have this on record?" Hylla asked.

"Yes," Paula said. "Why would you be interested in seeing them?"

"Faith is going to apply for the post of permanent healer," Kinzie spoke up saving their butts.

"I am?" Faith said. "Yeah, I mean, I just think I'd be… good at it."

"I'm sure you would," Paula said. "You have a natural talent for it. Well, I suppose that I can do you a sisterly favour."

Hylla slipped the smartphone in Faith's back pocket just before she walked away, following Paula to the computers in the back.

* * *

Kinzie and Hylla were walking back from a classroom. Every now and then, the _Fidus _had to take a real class or hear a real presentation as opposed to studying individually. They'd just been brainwashed by the Brazilian Amazon Head on the goodness of Queen Miranda.

They went to a scarcely used coffee shop that they'd decided to adopt since it was always empty. Except today someone else was there- Diane.

Kinzie called out her name and she looked up from her cup and smiled. Diane never smiled.

"Hello you two," she said.

"Are you okay?" Hylla asked. Diane had her hands wrapped around her cup and dark, sombre bags stretching underneath her eyes.

"I'm okay," Diane said.

"No offence, but you look horrible." Kinzie said. "And why aren't you at the gym?"

"I quit," Diane said.

Kinzie's jaw dropped.

"You _what? _But, Diane, you, it's _your _job. Nobody else has _ever _been in charge of the gym not since, not since-"

Hylla put an arm on her wrist so that she'd calm down.

"1995, I know." Diane said.

"Why did you quit?" Hylla asked.

"Queen Miranda wouldn't hear me out about you," Diane said. "I tried to talk sense into her, but she wouldn't hear any of it. I quit. She got mad at me and made me a Vigil."

"No," Kinzie said shocked.

Diane shrugged. "I wouldn't want to be her Honourable if that was what honour was."

Hylla held out her hand to Diane. Diane looked stunned and she shook it.

"I really appreciate it," Hylla said. "You didn't have to do that, but I really appreciate it. Coffee's on me."

"No girl. Coffee's on what's right." Diane said.

Hylla looked up at Kinzie, and automatically Kinzie knew what she wanted to do. She nodded.

"Speaking of right and wrong, we have something you might want to know." Hylla said.

* * *

"We have proof that Miranda bought the ingredients for the poison that killed Miranda," Hylla said. "We have proof that she brewed it. Now we need proof that Miranda actually killed Asha with it."

"Not to mention other motives and clues," Kinzie said. "She's been promoting everyone who might not be thrilled with her, or freezing ranks for those who might gain power and talk back. She refused to perform funerals for Queen Asha. Her first two acts as Queen were to abolish policies that Asha had put in place. It wasn't a secret that she didn't agree with my mother towards the end of her reign."

Hylla noted how, for the first time in a long time, Kinzie had acknowledged that Asha was her mother, and that her mother was dead. Doing something on this scale must've helped her settle and feel useful.

"And who will you bring your case to?" Diane said.

She too was crammed in the dorm room. There were actually a surprising amount of people in there –twenty people that Daisy and Faith had managed to find. Among them were Diane, The Sisters (because nothing ever happened without them knowing), Asha's ex left-hand Valerie, and a bunch of newbies that had been brutalised by Lynda and Lulu.

Kinzie, Faith, Daisy and Nat turned to Hylla.

"That part we don't know yet," Hylla said carefully. "Right now the idea is to build a case and make it as solid as possible. But that's not going to happen if nobody is ready to help."

She looked at them all.

Alex and Alec nodded.

Alex said, "We're ready to spy."

"Or anything else really," Alec nodded. "We're shameless and with very little moral."

"I'm a Vigil and I can milk it for the cause," Diane said.

"I can try to slither my way back into administration," Valerie said.

"We're still with you, Hylla." Nat, Faith and Daisy said.

"You know where I stand," Kinzie said.

She met Kinzie's eyes. That was the thing that made her feel most at ease with everything, more reassured that maybe this wasn't too grandiose to handle.

"Excellent," Hylla said. "Here's the plan…"

* * *

Things were going great. All of August was dedicated to the collection of evidence and recruiting people.

Recruiting was a tricky business since nobody who might not believe them or who might flip could be told a single thing. Daisy was the one who worked especially hard on that- her charms and pleasantness and openness helped.

The bunch of Newcomers that had shown up at first was recruiting amongst their ranks, and now there was a whole propaganda run going on in the barracks.

Hylla had appointed Alex and Alec to make sure that they knew what they were doing and that they knew how not to get caught. Alex seemed particularly good at this- and everyone was getting better at telling the two apart, so was everyone else by the looks of it. Kinzie was shocked at the differences existing in their personalities- no matter how small. Alex, for example, was a fantastic hacker whereas Alec was excellent at spying and staying on the down low.

Diane, as a Vigil, was planting cameras around Miranda's chambers and the throne room. Every night the footage and sound would be filtered through by one of their newer recruits, Fiona. She was fantastic with computers and mathematics and sorting and whatnot.

Nat, Kinzie and Valerie kept a close eye on all the policies and politics that Miranda was including and building up a pile of loopholes and contradictory policies.

There was a box full of clippings under Hylla's bed. They'd printed out the picture of Miranda's receipt, the flash cards, and the burns that Faith and Hylla had taken. Transcripts of Fiona's data were also very present. Valerie was writing and signing testimonies of what she'd seen and heard from Miranda about Asha's policies. Some of it was ugly and shocking, and made the whole political system of the Kingdom look like high school.

And Hylla had somehow fallen into the position of leader. Now, when Kinzie said 'somehow' she didn't mean that she didn't approve of it. Hylla had a cool head, a strategic brain, logic, the right attitude and demeanour to be respected, and the ability to listen and manage a big group of people that was doing a whole lot of things. It made sense. When Kinzie said 'somehow' it was because Hylla had never demanded it or asked for it. It had just happened through some sort of general consensus.

"Any news from Diane?" Hylla asked as the group meeting of the morning wrapped up and they hid everything. Roll call was coming up.

"Nope. Haven't seen her since the last time she showed," Nat said. "She's, like, totally off the map since last night."

Hylla turned to Kinzie and she shook her head too.

"We've tried snooping," Alex said.

"We really have," her sister replied.

"Thank you," Hylla said. "Try to find her at roll."

"It was easier to find her when she was at the gym all the time," Daisy said.

"She'll get her gym back soon enough," Hylla said.

They were at roll call when things went horribly wrong and it became clear that Diane wasn't getting her gym back anytime soon.

"And lastly," Miranda said after a long chain of boring announcements, "It pains me to have to announce that for the first time since the death penalty has been put back into place, it will have to be put into practise."

Whispers tore through the room like ripples in a pond. Miranda tapped her foot to the ground.

"Amazons," she said.

Everyone shut up and looked at her gawking.

"It pains me," Miranda said, "But I'm afraid that there is no other way to react to treason. Therefore Diane McCrae, daughter of Nike, is condemned to death."

Two guards dragged Diane onstage. She had a split lip. Kinzie's blood froze.

No. No way.

She looked panicked towards Hylla. The blood had drained out of her face, and she was looking straight at Diane without blinking.

"Found Diane," one of the Sisters muttered behind them.

"Diane McCrae, you were caught yesterday morning installing recording devices around the Kingdom," Miranda said.

People frowned and whispered. Of course everyone _knew _Diane. They were all panicking and fretting and confusion was at record peaks. All around her people said _How could Miranda do this? Surely there's a misunderstanding! _

"You have refused to give us any explanation as to why you felt the need to do this," Miranda said. "Ergo we have assumed the right to elaborate our own theories."

"What happened to reason?" Hylla whispered furiously. "That isn't just!"

Kinzie wasn't breathing anymore.

"You are a traitor to the Kingdom,"

She was freaking out, completely freaking out. How long would it be before the rest of them were tracked? The newbies spreading propaganda, Hylla with everything under her bed, Valerie, Fiona, Nat, Daisy, Faith…

"-and you will be executed tonight at midnight unless you choose to cooperate."

* * *

Hylla was looking from Diane to Kinzie.

Diane was in this mess because of her loyalty to Hylla's cause, because Hylla had brought her into this. Because she'd stood up for Hylla in a situation when not many people would.

Kinzie was holding her breath. She was in this too. How long would she have now that Miranda knew that there was some kind of opposition to her reign?

Diane kept a brave and neutral look on her face, as if she were nor humiliated nor concerned.

Kinzie was on the verge of tears. The woman who had killed her mother would kill another Amazon Kinzie had grown up knowing.

Diane was going to die at midnight.

* * *

Hylla got to her feet. Kinzie could barely register what she was doing until Hylla opened her mouth and said as clearly and loudly as she could:

"I challenge your right as Queen of the Amazons!"

Everyone silenced and looked at her. Miranda frowned in confusion until her eyes landed on Hylla.

_No, _Kinzie thought. No, no, no! They had a _plan. _Hylla couldn't go and risk her _life!_

"Who spoke?" Miranda said.

Hylla marched out of rank and stood in the walkway leading to the throne.

"I did." She said sternly.

"Hylla Castillo," Miranda said pronouncing Hylla's surname wrong. "Of course. I should have known. Dearest, I don't know what demons overtaking you right now but you, taking me on? You're only a _Fidus."_

"Any Amazon has the right to challenge the Queen for her throne," Hylla said. "But of course, you knew that since you're such a _rightful _ruler."

The word was dripping with sarcasm and meaning. Kinzie got chills. Her heart was beating too fast. Faith pinched her so that she'd start breathing again.

"Indeed," Miranda said darkly. She knew that Hylla knew what she'd done. "Well, it is settled them. Right after the execution…"

"No," Hylla said. "A Queen whose authority is under a threat cannot carry out her authority until the duel. You cannot kill Diane McCrae until I'm dead."

Miranda's eyes flashed.

"You consider yourself a threat, Hylla?" Miranda asked.

"Only to you," Hylla said.


	8. In which Hylla Plays with Fire

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

"We had a _plan," _Kinzie said. "What were you doing?!"

Kinzie was hyperventilating quite obviously.

"I wasn't going to let them kill Diane," Hylla said. "Or torture her until she couldn't help herself but talk. How could I have let that happen to her? How could I have lived with myself?"

"This isn't a solution," Valerie said wisely. "I hope you know that."

"I do." Hylla said bowing her head. "But it's bought her a few hours and in the best case scenario, if I win…"

"None of this 'if I win' business," Daisy said putting her hands on Hylla's shoulders and plopping her down on the bench. They were hanging out in the gym, which just felt right since this was all about Diane.

"You _will _win," Daisy said. "Because if you die I'm going to have to kill you and I will make it painful. That should make winning an attractive enough option for you not to screw up."

Nat and Faith smiled clumsily.

Kinzie was hugging her elbows. She was pale as a sheet and it broke Hylla's heart. "It's a fight to the death," Kinzie managed to choke out. She sounded like she was about to sob. "You _know _that don't you?"

"Yes," Hylla said.

"So why did you do it?" Kinzie said. "We could have figured something out! We could have freed her."

"I thought that it was brave," one of the tiny Newcomers, Sophia, said. She was as young as Amazons came: twelve years old, and she was painfully like Reyna and painfully not. She was as innocent as her age painted her to be and she still believed in people being brave and good, as well as being brave and good herself.

"Thank you," Hylla told her. "But you shouldn't have come with me. Now you're all going to be considered guilty by association."

"We were probably going to get caught," Fiona said tapping her ear. "According to the last camera that Diane managed to plant Miranda is fuming and she wants to know exactly who is here."

"We need to get something on foot then," Valerie said. "Start advertising all of our data in case we're all captured."

"We won't be," Daisy said. "Think about it logically. Miranda is this worn, beat-up witch who's older than the third floor's plumbing system. What has she got on Hylla?"

The joke made everyone feel better. The third floor was notorious for needing some work done on it.

Except for Kinzie. Kinzie still looked afraid and pale and lost.

"Look," Hylla said. "I've frozen Diane's execution until tomorrow. That gives her –_us_- about 31 hours in the worst case scenario, so we have no time to lose."

She turned towards Faith. "Faith: apply for a job at the infirmary. It might keep you safe if your talent as healer is recognised."

"I don't want to be safe if it means that…"

"I want you to," Hylla cut. "Miranda is clearly very fond of poison and there's going to have to be someone in the Kingdom who can counter that if worst comes to worst. That can be you.

"Nat, Daisy, Fiona, and all the Newcomers: I want you to create the biggest piece of propaganda anyone's ever seen. I mean, this has got to be _big. _Any media you like, but it needs to be big, showy, utterly memorable and hard to get rid of. Hacking is not off limits if you think you can get it done."

Fiona cracked her knuckles, smile on her lips. Something was going to go terribly wrong with all the backgrounds in the Kingdom.

"And at 12:01 if need arises, you put it up. Except the Newcomers."

They all looked devastated.

"You're young," Hylla said. "And I'm not using that as a lame excuse to say that there are things that you can't do, because you have outdone yourselves in every way that anyone could have expected of you. But your careers in the Kingdom are far from over, and there's a chance that you can get out of this safe and sound if things go wrong tonight."

Nobody looked happy, and Hylla looked at Sophia in the eye.

"It takes a lot of bravery to sit out of the action sometimes," Hylla said. "I'm asking a lot from you and I know it. Please?"

"We'll see," Sophia said. That was the best that Hylla was going to get.

"Valerie," Hylla said turning her attention as her brain whizzed. "I need you to get cracking on the policy. Find every loophole there is to find about how Diane could be saved, and how you can keep everyone who's helped us safe."

The left-hand nodded, and so Hylla turned to Alec and Alex. "Tonight, I don't want you too anywhere near the fight. I want you two right with Diane in the holding cells. We'll take the radio chips we used when I snuck into Miranda's chambers, and you'll stay in touch with Valerie. She'll let you know who wins, and if I lose-"

"You will not," Daisy said still trying to sell the idea.

Hylla raised her hand to silence her. "If I lose, you two take Diane out of here and run. But make sure that you can be in her cells; find a way to get in. If anyone can it's you two."

"Or Kinz," Alex said.

_No, _Hylla thought. _I want Kinzie with me._

* * *

"I'm sorry about how furious you are," Hylla said.

For supper, they'd taken over the café one last time- maybe because Miranda would win, or maybe because Hylla would win and their secrecy wouldn't be necessary. Valerie had told Hylla what to eat: food that would be energetic without being hard to digest or heavy. Hylla wasn't sure what it mattered since the fight would be at midnight, but she'd listened.

Hylla had trained for a while; Kinzie had watched and given her the best advice that she could. Really Hylla had wanted to hear from Diane, but that was impossibly- the Sisters had tried to get to her legally earlier. Instead she'd heard from Maia, a woman much older than Diane who was a retired Honourable. She'd been a police officer before coming to the Kingdom, and a good friend of Diane's since she'd come. For her sake, Maia had sought out Hylla to help and had given her some of the best tips she'd ever gotten.

"You know," she'd said as Hylla packed up and got ready to leave, "I am a daughter of Athena."

Hylla had waited for the rest.

"Strategy, I know for a fact, is the most important component of any fight. A strategy can be made in several different ways. One of which is that you pinpoint your opponent's weakness and drive a blade in it." Maia said severely.

They'd gone back to the dorm after consulting Maia. Everyone was out doing their jobs: the box of articles and scrap paper was out of the dorm for the first time ever.

Then she'd slept. She'd gone to bed at eight, as if she was six years old, and had put her alarm for eleven o'clock sharp. Once it'd rung, it'd woken both she and Kinzie up. They'd gotten dressed, Hylla had armed herself, and off they'd gone.

They were now in the room adjoining the throne room, that was for tonight dedicated to being a locker room of some sort.

Ever since she'd first put up a fight against Hylla fighting, Kinzie had been silent and eerie, like a ghost. But her presence was warmer. She held Hylla's hand and just provided comfort by being there. But Hylla could tell that she was pushing back her own emotions.

"I'm not angry," Kinzie said. "I am scared and sad and panicking."

"I'm sorry for that, then." Hylla said.

That's when the doors opened up and more people poured in. Valeria, Nat, Faith, Daisy, Maia to Hylla's surprise, Fiona, and even little Sophia.

They all fussed around her.

"Is your blade sharp enough? What blade are you using?" Maia said.

"My dagger," Hylla said.

"_Your dagger? _Miranda's out there with a sword!" Valerie said.

"And she's probably wearing armour," Hylla said. "I'm quick and I can get close with this."

"It's not even sharp enough!" Valerie despaired. "For the love of the gods…"

"The girl will be fine if she uses her brain," Maia said.

"I can do that," Sophie said grabbing the laces of Hylla's gauntlets from her. "I'm lucky; it's in my blood- daughter of Fortuna and all."

"Thanks kiddo," Hylla said as Sophia laced up her gauntlets and greaves.

Hylla was very scarcely armoured- her arms and legs were covered because those were harder to protect, but she wasn't wearing a traditional breast plate. They were bulky, heavy, she wasn't used to wearing them, and they slowed Hylla down: she had opted out for some thick bandeaus instead. Her reasoning was that she could watch her chest with more ease than her arms and legs, and Miranda would try to get to those to weaken Hylla along the way. She wore a helmet.

She had a knife in her hand and one on her thigh. You weren't allowed to have any concealed weapons, and a maximum of two. Those were the rules.

Battle jitters bounced across her stomach like a flood of butterflies. Mutated butterflies on steroid-poisoned caffeine, that was.

These people were all rooting for her. They were all on her side, they believed in her. Heck, their safety –and the safety of others waiting in cells or sleeping in the barracks- depended on her winning this fight and dispatching Miranda and her tyranny.

"Hylla, are you ready?" Faith asked.

"Yes," Hylla said. "Just as soon as I…"

She took a deep breath.

"I need to thank all of you."

"Thank us later, you're not dying!" Daisy said.

Everyone giggled nervously.

Hylla cracked a smile. That girl's sheer will power would keep Hylla alive. "Later it might be complicated. I'm sure everything will be a mess, and it'll never be just us again- not like this. Not like a few of the most courageous women I've ever met risking their ranks for what is right. Not a few of the most clever women I've ever met believing in justice more than royalty as opposed to most. It'll never be a few girls huddled in a dorm room, tied in secrecy but knowing that they are with warriors who aer persistent, constant, reliable and brilliant. Out there, I'm not going to be fighting for me. I'm going to be fighting for all of us. I'm going to be fighting for the real Queen, Asha Caden. With all of that: the chances are on my side."

Sophia clapped and beamed, not nervous at all.

Valerie nodded sternly, a smile on her lips. Hope flared through her eyes. That hadn't happened since Asha had died and she'd lost both her best friend and any trace of a job in the Kingdom.

Maia looked at Hylla with raw approval, as if her speech made sense. Nat, Daisy and Faith looked satisfied with what Hylla was saying and they looked confident.

Kinzie nodded and watched Hylla with careful eyes on the verge of tears. Hylla knew that they weren't done.

"Can you guys give us a minute alone?" Hylla said.

"Stretch decently," Maia said.

"I shall," Hylla said.

"You better. I will know," Maia said. She took Daisy's arm for support and they hobbled out.

The door shut and she turned to look at Kinzie, and that's when something hit Hylla; something she hadn't thought of before.

"You've seen your mother go through this before, haven't you?" She said.

Kinzie nodded.

"I was six years old and living with the other kids, back at the school on campus. They took me out one night, told me that something very important was going to happen and that my mother might not be okay. I sat in this same room with her as she got ready for her duel. People were fluttering all around her and trying to give her advice or ask her if she needed anything and it was one big mess. Miranda and Valerie were there, Beth and Héloïse, most of her original Court… And she kept trying to get me to come to her amid all of that panic. When I did she hugged me and told me that she was going to see me in twenty minutes, and then they all left except for Valerie who stayed with me. I could hear everything that was happening through the wall, and I didn't breathe for twenty minutes and ending up passing out, so I didn't even see my mom until morning."

Hylla nodded.

"You are my best friend and the only person I've ever talked fearlessly to and who has believed in me. And today I'm going to watch the fight, because I'm not a kid anymore. I have grown up so much because of…" Kinzie said.

Hylla was shivering.

"Mack," she interrupted. "Don't say a word more. You're talking like I'm about to die."

"You might," Kinzie said. "You might! I believe in you, you know that, but bad things happen to good people. And if you do I'll make sure that all these people are safe, okay? I'll make sure that all your people are safe, even Diane, and that we won't die and that Miranda will come down."

"We'll talk again, okay? No need to even make that promise to me."

"Too bad. I swear it on the Styx." Kinzie said.

Hylla spread her arms and Kinzie threw her arms around her neck.

"You know, you put up with a lot of crap from me," Hylla said holding Kinzie close close. "And I'm really thankful that you think I'm worth that crap, because I'd be worse off than I am today if it weren't for so much of you, Mack. And now I've got to give you more crap, because I'm about to go do this scary thing, and there's a letter under my pillow that you need to send to my sister –my blood sister- if I don't make it. She should be at the Roman fort by now."

"I'd want to know if anything happened to you," Kinzie said. "I'll make sure she gets it."

"Thank you. Thank you for getting me that mug, thank you for showing me around, thank you for backing me up all the time, thank you for stopping me from doing crazy, stupid things, and thank you for believing in me."

"You're not hard to believe in," Kinzie said tightening her grip.

The door opened again.

"Hylla, it's one to." Faith said popping in.

"That's my cue," Hylla said. Hand in hand with Kinzie, she walked out into the Throne room where one of two things would happen.

Hylla would kill Miranda, or Miranda would kill Hylla.

* * *

There wasn't really a referee to the fight. There weren't any penalties when the goal was to kill the other person, and it didn't take a judge to dictate if someone was dead or not. There was just someone to officially name the Queen. Usually it would be Diane, but for obvious reasons today it was a substitute named Ariel.

Ariel blew her whistle and named the fighters.

"Queen Miranda," she said laying out her arm to the left. Miranda stepped on the wrestling mat that was their designated fighting area, wearing full armour, armed with a sword and holding a shield. Hylla would definitely be more flexible. People cheered and went wild.

Ariel on the other hand was politically neutral, and so Kinzie figured that Hylla wasn't going to get tripped by the ref or anything like that.

But the latter still tapped her on the arm so that she'd start breathing.

"I'll try to make this quick, but I can't make promises. Breathe." Hylla told her.

"And the challenger, Hylla Castillo," Ariel said.

Hylla walked onto the mattress, and with a squeeze of her heart Kinzie thought _what if the last thing she'll ever have said to me is 'breathe'?_

Everyone who'd attended any kind of meeting in the dorm cheered. This was it: they really were screwed if some faux-pas led to Hylla's death.

They both stood face to face and Ariel said something that only the two fighters could hear.

Hylla held out her hand to Miranda. She did that before any of her fights, as respect. Miranda instead swung her sword and sliced Hylla's hand. The fight didn't even start at the whistle, it didn't even start fairly.

But it had started.

Hylla didn't let herself get fazed, and thankfully she'd held out her left hand as opposed to her right. She must have been expecting this; there wasn't a trace of shock on Hylla face although it was hard to tell what she felt during her battles, even to Kinzie. Her face was one cool mask as if she were born for what she was doing- which of course she was.

They sparred quickly and fearlessly for a while. Hylla's hand bled, but it didn't seem to remotely bother her. She still managed to land a punch on Miranda's nose with it while her dagger kept Miranda's sword at bay. She kept her blade near the base of Miranda's sword, and when Miranda finally pushed free Hylla had a chance to quickly swipe at her hand. Miranda bashed Hylla on the shoulder with her shield, and the daughter of Bellona went down.

Kinzie nearly screamed.

However Hylla rolled away to safety, and she'd somehow managed to get a hold of Miranda's shield. She tossed it in the crowd, confiscating one of the advantages Miranda had undoubtedly been relying heavily on since Hylla was known for never having touched a shield since she'd entered the Kingdom.

Miranda jumped on Hylla and pinned her down. Hylla dropped her knife and Miranda pawed it away. While her arm was displaced, Hylla used her legs to push up throw herself up, knocking Miranda in the shoulder. Miranda was the first to scream as Hylla flipped them over. She was on top, and she drew Miranda's spare knife from her waist and raised it above her throat. Kinzie was buzzing with excitement. Could this be it?

Miranda had made a wild grab and now had her sword in hand. She swung it and hit Hylla again- on the same shoulder as the shield had previously.

Now she was bruised _and _cut. Kinzie could just completely give up on the idea of breathing now!

Hylla got away and got back to her feet. She didn't even show any sign of registering any possible pain or the existing blood. She acted like a robot.

She caught Miranda's blade on her knife and with a twist of it and a caught wrist, spun Miranda around. She jumped the Queen, wrapping her legs around her waist and then dropping back onto the ground.

Miranda fell backwards and Hylla pushed on her hands so that the Queen would fall on her stomach. The sound of armour scrunching was horrible, but Miranda had held onto her sword. She felt the pressure now that her spare knife was gone. That was another advantage that Hylla had: she always fought as if she were armed with a stick against a fully armoured god, never getting cocky and always being business.

Hylla was sitting right on top of her and she was pressing her dagger in Miranda's throat. Kinzie felt like she was about to be sick even if this was exactly what she had wanted to happen.

Miranda's sword struck against Hylla's back. The bandeau she was wearing seemed to be enough to prevent damage too serious, because Hylla managed to get away before Miranda struck her again.

The crowd was absolutely nuts and Kinzie thought that she'd throw up on the mat and stop the fight. Of course that wouldn't stop these two. The two Amazons were full of adrenaline.

They exchanged blows for a little while until Hylla suddenly stopped aiming for Miranda's sword. She was trying to spread Miranda's limbs away from each other and keep the Queen's focus on her right side. Kinzie had seen her do this before- placing her opponent's focus where she wanted it to be.

She suddenly lunged forwards and sliced Miranda's hand open.

Miranda yelled at the top of her lungs. Never before had Kinzie heard such a sound- much less from a simple cut to the hand!

While she was in such pain, Hylla knocked her in the face with her elbow and kicked her in the stomach. Miranda tumbled down.

Hylla dug her knife in a chink in the armour meant to shield Miranda's left shoulder, and if it weren't for the roaring spectators Kinzie was sure that she'd have heard a crack. Miranda's screams could wake the dead. It was horrible.

That's when she remembered what Maia had said about opposing your opponent's weakness. She remembered what Paula had told them about Miranda being burned on the hand, and how Faith had said that the Fabricated Disease was highly reactive…

_Hylla you clever girl! _Kinzie wanted to cry out. She'd managed to tie up all these flaws, all this advice together with a big bow. It felt like Christmas!

Hylla tossed her knife, picked up Miranda's sword and stabbed it right in the Queen's throat next, silencing everyone.

Blood gushed- Hylla had clearly hit an artery.

Miranda gasped and choked. Blood gushed from her mouth and coated Hylla's legs.

She started laughing. "Fine, Hylla, fine. You take this victory, but it's only a matter of time. Every Queen always falls for a reason."

"Then I'll make sure that it won't be murder and betrayal." Hylla said. "You're lucky I'm not letting you bleed out."

Miranda passed out nearly immediately, and Hylla then sliced her throat.

People were stunned and they whispered. _The second Queen of the summer! She did it! Oh gods, she really did!_

Slowly a chant came. _Hylla, Hylla, Hylla!_

Ariel was shocked. She helped Hylla back up and was the first to bow to her.

"All hail Hylla Castillo! Queen of the Amazons!" She said raising Hylla's arm in the air.

"All hail!" Kinzie yelled back at the top of her lungs, grabbing onto Faith's arm. "All hail!"

* * *

As far as she could see, people were bowing. Her friends were no exception.

Somehow it had never fully clicked in her mind that if she'd win she'd become _queen. _Boy was it clear as day now.

Ariel placed the belt in Hylla's hands and she managed to clench her teeth and thank her for it. People were louder than ever, and Hylla knew that she didn't have much time. She managed to get her thoughts straight and give orders.

She raised her hand for everyone to be silent first.

"Everyone return to their rooms immediately, except for the guards who are on shift, and the members of Miranda's Court. I'll ask you to report to the Queen's Chambers and wait there until I come get you- blankets and pillows will be delivered to you shortly." Hylla said. "I'll address all of you properly and more fully in the morning. Those of you that were with me in the resistance, you know who you are, please wait here."

People found this strange. Hylla wondered what usually happened when a new Queen killed her predecessor- feast? Party? Speech? She didn't have the need or ambition to do those things, or the time. Guards started ushering everyone out.

Her friends flooded the mattress. Everyone was touching her- squeezing her hands, hugging her, congratulating her. The only touch she registered was Kinzie's and she needed it. She was scared out of her mind.

She let them talk and celebrate for five minutes. This was their victory too- they'd just been saved as well. But then she got down to business, orders forming in her head like a list.

"Sophia- please go wake up all of the Newcomers that have helped us."

The four lowest ranks were not permitted to witness the fight; Kinzie, Sophia, Faith and co being exceptions since they were close to Hylla.

"Tell them to arm themselves and get dressed and to go wait at the Queen's Chambers. Twenty people should be there in total, don't let anybody out until I come tomorrow morning. If there are any missing in half an hour, come find us."

"Yes Queen Hylla," Sophia said beaming. "I told you I was lucky!"

"You were," Hylla said with a painful smile. "I needed that."

Sophia smiled and ran out. Hylla turned to Nat. Pain shot up her whole left side as she moved.

"Go find the Sisters, and free Diane. Make sure she's alright; give her a safe place to sleep and stay with her."

"Yes ma'am," Nat said.

"Daisy, Valerie: go deliver pillow and blankets to the Queen's Chambers. Enough for all the members of the Court. Help the Newcomers make sure that everyone's there, and find those who are not."

"Of course, Milady." Valerie said before they two left. Queen, Milady, Ma'am- Hylla wasn't used to any of this and it wasn't her concern at the moment.

Hylla turned to Fiona.

"Take Miranda's body somewhere where it will be safe and untouched," she said. Pain split her head as she had to figure out where that place may be. "The Morgue, take her there right away."

Faith was next. "Faith, is there a cure to The Fabricated Disease?"

"I'm not sure," she replied. "Why?"

Pain shot through Hylla's chest.

"Because I think that Miranda's weapons were coated in it."


	9. In which Faith Makes a Call

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

Paula had given Hylla something to knock her out before the pain became more unbearable than it was. Kinzie was nervously circling between holding her hand and hanging around Faith.

"And?" She kept asking.

"I'm still looking," Faith would say throwing another one of Paula's books off the shelf.

"Can't you call the healers that you worked with earlier?" Kinzie asked nervously.

"They're men."

"That's Hylla who's dying over there!" Kinzie said. "I don't care what the hell they reproduce with!"

"I know and I'd call them, but their number is blocked on all campus," Faith said.

Kinzie looked over her shoulder at Hylla who was knocked out. Her body still cringed with pain every now and then. Gods, they should have expected this from Miranda! According to Faith, she'd also used an accelerator in the poison to trigger its effects sooner than it should be. She'd probably been hoping to knock Hylla out while they were still fighting. Totally against the rules! Poison was the coward's weapon! That _bitch. _Nastier names flooded through Kinzie's mind, most of them part of a more colourful language that Hylla herself had initiated in Kinzie.

"Not if we use the Queen's phone," Kinzie said. "The one in the Chambers. Let's go!"

Kinzie grabbed the Queen's belt that lay on Hylla's side table. She swore to herself that Hylla would get to wear it. _Cross my heart and hope to die. _There was no way that Hylla was going to die now, after what she'd done for them.

They raced through the hallways and yelled at people to get out of their ways.

Nat and the Newcomers were by the doors.

"Move!" Kinzie cried when they were just coming close.

Kinzie hit the door and struggled to press the belt's pattern into the lock on the door. The doors swung open. Members of the Counsel got up and started protesting of their captivity there and how they knew nothing.

"Your Queen has given you orders, follow them!" Kinzie snapped as Faith grabbed the phone. Kinzie found a pad of paper and handed it quickly to Faith as she punched in the number.

The conversation was in Greek, so Kinzie spent most of it panicking and not registering a word.

Faith finished with "thanks, can't talk, emergency, bye" and hung up.

"Go!" She cried.

They raced back to the infirmary and as they ran, Faith yelled out the explanation.

"So Hylla would have ten hours on the clock if the poison was used in its natural form- without an accelerator," Faith said. "I've got a remedy that takes about an hour to make. If I've got everything I need, we'll be okay!"

"You'll have everything you'll need, we're the _Amazons." _Kinzie said. "How much time does Hylla have left _since _Miranda trafficked with the potion."

"No clue!" Faith said. "I'd have to know what the hell Miranda did to it. Hell, there might be something in Hylla's bloodstream that the usual remedy can't heal."

"_What? _So there's a chance that we're going to lose her even if we suppose that Miranda hasn't changed poisons," Kinzie said. "Or that she hasn't used two. Or if…"

"Kinzie," Faith said with frustration in her voice, "this is a message from Hylla: breathe!"

Kinzie's breath caught in her throat. That was the last thing Hylla had said before fighting.

Kinzie hadn't thought that even after Miranda was dead Hylla would be fighting for her life. Fighting in a way that she didn't know how to do, fighting in a way that was entirely up to her immune system and the gods…

There wasn't a person that Kinzie would want Hylla's hands in less than the gods.


	10. In which Something New Begins

**Sisters in Arms**

* * *

Hylla was struggling with the hook on the belt. It had to be latched on from behind, and Hylla's shoulder throbbed, plus she had to tighten it because of her size and so _that _didn't make it any easier.

"Need a hand?"

Hylla turned around to the sound of Kinzie's voice. She smiled sheepishly and nodded. Kinzie grinned, trying not to laugh at her, and came to help. She had the belt tied securely in ten seconds and Hylla couldn't even say something like 'I loosened it for you'.

The labyrinth-like golden chinks immediately pressed themselves against Hylla, surprising her.

"Oh," she said putting a hand on her lower stomach. "Gods."

"It likes you," Kinzie said. "My mother used to say that the belt had the power to find the Queen anywhere."

_That's me now, _Hylla had to remind herself. As if it wasn't big enough of a shock to become royalty overnight, having passed out for ten hours poisoned and bruised and cut up hadn't helped her any.

But Faith's cure that worked and Paula had healed up Hylla's other injuries in the meantime. She'd have another scar on her shoulder to add to her collection, and it was still sore and she was walking around with a cool and medicated patch under her clothes, but she managed.

"I'm sorry that the title doesn't fall to your mom," Hylla said. "I truly am. I'm sorry that your mother had to die before anyone noticed that Miranda was a snake."

Kinzie shrugged. "Things happen. And she'd be glad that it was you now. Except your hair's a mess," Kinzie said before combing her fingers through Hylla's hair. "Also you should wear it up. Show the cut on your cheek. Look badass."

She pulled Hylla's hair up.

"Do you have your speech? Fiona has got the visual supports you asked her for so that you can explain and prove what Miranda did. Have you figured out who you want to name in your Court yet?"

"Nearly," Hylla said.

"Nearly? You're appearing in front of the Kingdom for the first time as their Queen in about ten minutes!" Kinzie said.

The fight had been two nights ago. Yesterday, Valerie had taken over the Kingdom for her as she slept for most of the day and healed. The Amazon had dropped by to talk to her last night, and Hylla had had a nice chat with her. Valerie had the experience to help her figure out who to pick, although Hylla had been very adamant about a few people that she wanted in her Court.

"Congratulations on defeating Miranda, by the way." Valerie had said after helping her settle on Counsellors. "Most of us have been preoccupied sick about your health so I don't think you've heard that much."

"No," Hylla said. "I haven't."

"Was she your first? The first is always the hardest."

"My first what?"

"Your first kill," Valerie said.

"Oh," Hylla said. "No."

"Good," Valerie said. "Good. Asha was devastated when she came to the throne- I remember it as if it were yesterday."

"I'm sorry you lost her," Hylla said. "She was a good woman."

"That's true," Valerie said with a faint smile. "Most people just call her a good Queen."

"She was that too," Hylla said. "I hope I can rule like her."

"I'm sure you will."

"I was hoping that maybe you could be my left-hand," Hylla had said. "If you advised her so well… I'd like someone with experience in my Court, and I want to be the kind of Queen that Asha was."

Valerie had been shocked and unprepared for it.

"You are a peculiar girl, Hylla Castillo. But I'd be honoured to serve you."

That had made composing her Court easier. The guards were easy to choose from- Hylla took people she'd seen fight well, that she could fight with well and who could fight well with each other at the gym. The ministers were harder, but she'd made a list.

_COUNSELLORS_

_Right hand-_

_Left hand- Valerie Jefferson_

_Secrecy- Alex Hayes_

_Information- Alec Hayes_

_Security- Faith McCartney_

_Foreign Affairs- Nat Kang _

_Industry- [find oldest Amazon in the Kingdom: experience = +] Mary Jane Kelley_

_Justice- Diane McCrae_

_Finance- Fiona Dubois_

_Marketing- Daisy Lee_

She only had one missing.

"I just need one more person to say yes," Hylla said.

"You know that you appoint people, right? You don't have to ask them." Kinzie said.

"I know. But I wanted to make sure that you'd like to be my Right hand, Kinzie." Hylla said.

Kinzie looked like a doe in the headlights.

"Hylla… oh gods, no, Hylla you don't have to take me," Kinzie said softly. "Faith or Nat or Valerie would manage better, I'd understand. Hell, take _Lulu."_

"There's only one Kinzie, isn't there?" Hylla said.

"Yes," Kinzie said.

"Did I stutter?" Hylla said. "It's you that I want. I can't imagine myself making ends meet without you."

"You'd manage."

"No I wouldn't," Hylla insisted. "And even if I would, I'd be miserable. You sell yourself short, Mack. You give me a reason to do things, the courage to do them and the intellect and advice I need to do them. And that's as important as any historical great deed. Also, I won't let you turn down my offer just because you think otherwise, or because you sell yourself short. I'll chain you to my wall and have you advise me if I have to."

Kinzie looked at her. The emotions from the last summer shone in her eyes once again- all of them.

"But," Hylla said, "I'm not going to forget what you said when we met. How you were born into the Kingdom and how you always thought you had no choice but to live there. If you don't want to be an Amazon anymore because you want to see the world… well, I'll pack your bags for you Mack."

Kinzie shook her head, lips trembling.

"If you need me, I need you. If you want me here, I want to be here. If you see good in me, there's got to be good in me. Basic rules of thumb for how we operate, Hylla. How the hell could I leave you now?" Kinzie said.

She hugged Hylla. "You're my big annoying sister in arms, after all. How could I possibly let you do something this big without me?"

Hylla grinned and slipped her bruised hand in Kinzie's. "I take it that we won't need to find out."

"No," Kinzie said. "We most certainly will not."


End file.
